Modern home care solutions for an elderly population

SINGAPORE — Noticing a lack of home caregiving services for the Republic’s elderly population when she returned last year after living abroad for 15 years, Ms Gillian Tee decided that technology could help plug the gap.

Together with two partners, she co-founded Homage — an on-demand home care business matching caregivers to ailing seniors — in the middle of last year.

Homage offers a buffet of services that can be booked online — from assistance in daily life such as companionship or buying groceries, to medical care including tube feeding and wound cleaning. Services cost S$20 to S$25 per hour, while caregivers are paid S$17 to S$20 per hour by Homage.

Its number of caregivers swelled from 10 to 20 in May last year to more than 300 now. More than half have a nursing background.

Homage is Ms Tee’s first start-up in Singapore. Prior to that, the 35-year-old studied and worked — first as a technology consultant and later as a tech entrepreneur — in Australia and the United States.

When her sister relocated to Australia two years ago, Ms Tee returned to be with her mother. “My mom’s life is amazing — she does yoga — but at the same time, I knew there were a few things that would be different in the next few years. She hit 70 last year, and there were things like forgetfulness,” said Ms Tee.

“I realised ageing all around the world is perceived as this negative experience where you have nothing to look forward to. And if you have some kind of chronic illness, it’s hush-hush. You’re just put in a corner and not allowed to see the world. That gave me a lot of chills in the spine.”

While there are step-down care facilities, she felt seniors should have more opportunities to be cared for at home.

Homage also offers former nurses the option to work part-time, but Ms Tee stressed its services go beyond medical care. Some families require a caregiver to help their loved ones with daily activities such as bathing or preparing meals after being discharged from hospital.

Homage was featured in the National Day Rally yesterday, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the start-up was doing well as it had managed to tap information technology to match demand with supply — similar to taxi or car-hire applications.

Mr Lee also urged overseas Singaporeans in the IT industry, such as Ms Tee, to return home to help make Singapore a Smart Nation.

Having spent years abroad, Ms Tee noticed a lack of data usage for predictive healthcare in Singapore. “A lot of what we do has been reactive. With technology, we can ... (engage in) prevention rather than mitigation.”

For instance, there are US organisations gathering data to predict the progression of diabetes in patients. Data collection goes “hand in hand” with technology adoption, and also relies on wearable technology, she said.

But it depends on how ready the population is to adopt technology. “If you look at my mom and grandma, and ask them adopt technology now ... oh my goodness,” she said with a laugh. “It’ll be great to move Singapore to a point where there is that adoption. We hope to play a part in that.”

Homage’s recent users include Ms Koh Hwee Yik, whose 80-year-old father — who has dementia, chronic heart disease and kidney failure — was hospitalised after a fall last month. He needed a caregiver after being discharged, and Ms Koh came across an advertisement for Homage on Facebook.

Within a day of calling Homage, a representative went to the hospital to assess her father’s condition.

Two nurse-trained caregivers from Homage accompanied her father round-the-clock for two days when he arrived home.

They showered and moved him around, also monitoring the condition of his health.

Ms Koh, who is self-employed, paid about S$700 for an assessment report and two full days of care.

She said: “Every time the caregivers leave, they would do a report on his blood pressure, urine output and so on, and left it in our group chat, so that (the family was) informed.”