People with disabilities may face longer wait for training, shelters

SINGAPORE — The problem of a long waiting list for training places and shelters for people with disabilities — currently two years — could get more acute, say operators of such facilities, who are facing a resource crunch because the shortage of trained staff has been compounded by longer life expectancies among this group.

Persons with disabilities, who are rarely discharged from these centres, are now living into their 50s and 60s and facing conditions such as dementia and high blood pressure.

“With intellectual disabilities and conditions like dementia, we are not sure if we are able to handle, but it is something we are keeping a watch on,” said Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS) Chief Executive Officer Keh Eng Song.

MINDS is the largest charity organisation here catering to the needs of 2,300 intellectually disabled people.

Although a fourth Training and Development Centre (TDC) — which can accommodate up to 48 clients — opened in Tampines last month, the current waiting list of almost 100 will barely shorten because many of those graduating from special education schools have high-support needs that only these TDCs can cater for.

For instance, two-fifths, or about 40, of MINDS’ 108 graduands from its four special education schools this November are likely to go to the TDCs.

The rest will go to MINDS’ three Employment Development Centres, which provide about 1,000 places but have been running at close to full capacity.

Mr Keh said their solution now is to encourage those on the waiting list to attend other Day Activity Centres (DACs).

“We don’t like our clients to stay home because they will regress (when) they stay away from service for too long,” he said, adding that it is in talks with the Ministry of Social and Family Development to create more places.

But finding locations to site more of these centres is a challenge because of resistance from residents, said Mr Keh. For instance, finding a location to build the Tampines centre, which sits in a void deck, took two years.

“Some think they are aggressive and dangerous, but it all boils down to a misunderstanding of our clients. There are no issues with the residents after a while as residents get to know our clients better,” he said.

Mr Abhimanyau Pal, Executive Director of the Society for the Physically Disabled (SPD), also said the DAC it runs is operating at near its full capacity of 60 places and it is “limited by space and resources to increase our capacity”.

“Recruiting local trained staff, improving the salary structure of the sector and providing dedicated transport to clients when government funding is limited are some of the major challenges that we face while running our programmes and services,” said Mr Pal.

For the 100 trainees it has under its sheltered workshop programme, the SPD has to rely on the support of companies to provide sub-contract work that serves as training opportunities, he added.

Smaller operators of DACs that TODAY spoke to said they have places available, but struggle with providing transportation for their clients.

For instance, the THK Day Activity Centre @ Chai Chee, which provides 25 places and is run by the Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities (THKMC), does not have a waiting list. But clients have to pay for transportation to the centre.

THKMC’s Divisional Director (Homes for the Disabled) Ardi Hardjoe said: “The people who are making the trip into the centre will have to bear with a longer journey time — beyond an hour — and higher transportation fees.”