Childcare professionals do home visits, offer guidance to parents
TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — Once a week, Ms Poongothi Annadorai sits down with an officer from the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) in her one-room flat at Tiong Bahru and gets tips on how she can better care for her five-month-old son Levi. This includes what songs to sing to him, how to help him develop physical strength to hold items, among other tips.
Ms Poongothi, 37, who has three other children aged six to 17, said: “Every week, they give me instructions to follow and teach me what my baby needs in the next stage.”
Levi is one of 89 infants who are part of the KidStart Home Visitation pilot programme, which aims to help parents acquire skills and practical knowledge in areas such as child development, health and nutrition.
It is being conducted in the Kreta Ayer-Bukit Merah districts and is supported by staff members from ECDA and KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital who have relevant working experience in the health, early childhood, and social services sectors.
While the advice given may sound banal to others, some parents such as Ms Poongothi appreciate having a home visitor to guide her. “These are things I never followed for my three (older) kids… I was very busy working then, and nobody to motivate me,” she said.
A former security officer, Ms Poongothi is now looking for a new job with better working hours.
Her husband, who works in a warehouse, is the sole breadwinner in this family of six. He draws a monthly salary of S$1,700.
Apart from dishing out advice, the home visitor often serves as a counsellor.
Ms Lee Wei Qi, 29, a former preschool principal now working as a home visitor, said that one of her greatest challenges is in “allaying the frustrations” of parents and caregivers: “Some of them are very easily confused by certain issues, even basic things like weaning your child off breastfeeding...So we have to counsel them and help them understand why their children are responding in a certain way.”
There are parents who may be “wary” of home visitors, Ms Lee said, and that is one of her greatest challenges, to build rapport with this group and get them “on board” the programme. “We need to get the parents to understand the importance of early childhood development and early childhood education,” she said.
KidStart’s other aim is to better engage vulnerable children from low-income families through playgroups and having extra manpower in pre-schools.
There are 389 children presently involved in various programmes under KidStart, and the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) hopes to expand this number to 1,000 over the next three years.
The various programmes are available only in three regions for now — Kreta Ayer-Bukit Merah, Taman Jurong-Boon Lay, and Geylang Serai. During the debate on the ministry’s budget on Wednesday (March 8), Parliamentary Secretary Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim (Social and Family Development) said that MSF would review its processes before expanding them.
Responding to concerns raised by parliamentarians on tightening legislation for vulnerable groups in Singapore, including seniors and vulnerable adults, Dr Faishal said that MSF is working towards introducing the Vulnerable Adults Bill in 2018.
The proposed law, first mooted in October 2014, seeks to allow the State to, in high-risk situations, step in to protect individuals who are unable to protect themselves from abuse, neglect or self-neglect because they suffer from some form of physical or mental infirmity. It also proposes for social workers to be given greater powers of access and to appoint public deputies to act on behalf of vulnerable adults.
By the end of this year, individuals will also be able to hire professionals — such as lawyers, accountants, social workers, doctors and nurses — to make decisions on their behalf should they lose mental capacity, under the Mental Capacity Act which was amended last year.
