More to be done to help people with disabilities in Singapore - Singapore's Online Community

**djchris** · 13-02-2007, 09:40 AM

SINGAPORE: More will be done to help people with disabilities in Singapore, especially in the areas of education, employment and community support.

As part of a five-year masterplan, a steering committee tasked to look into this sector has submitted 31 recommendations to the government.

The Government is setting up an inter-ministerial panel to study the recommendations submitted by the Enabling MasterPlan Committee for the Disability Sector.

Two key proposals are: setting up a national office on disability and a database of Singaporeans with disabilities.

Under the proposal, the national office will be supported by two governing panels - the Early Intervention and Education Panel, and the Employment Panel.

From the physically disabled to the mentally handicapped and children with special needs, just how many disabled people are there in Singapore?

Professor Lee Eng Hin, Steering Committee Chairman, Enabling MasterPlan for the Disability Sector, said: "We felt that the prevalence rate should be more than 3.2%. As it is, we do have bits and pieces of information on how many disabled children we may have. And we may have from hospitals, some numbers on amputees, etc, but we don't really have a complete database on the prevalence of disability.

"So what we're proposing is for us to set up such a database so that we'll know in the future how many disabled children, adults, elderly we have. From there, we can then work towards how to help them."

Early intervention and education for the disabled are areas of priority.

The Committee suggests that the Education and Health Ministries lead in integrating services in education and therapy under the national office's Early Intervention and Education Panel.

One recommendation is for the Education Ministry to set up Curriculum Units to determine what and how to teach children with special needs.

The Committee also suggests setting up a systematic framework of assessment and placement, and greater integration between special education and mainstream schools.

And because many children enter special schools late, the Committee suggests the age limit for students in such schools be extended from the current 18 to 21 years.

This is so that young adults with disability are better prepared for further vocational training or for work in the job market.

To ease parents' burden of expensive early intervention programmes, a hybrid funding formula has been proposed.

Denise Phua, Sub Committee Chairperson, Early Intervention and Education, Enabling Masterplan Steering Committee, said: "Early intervention is expensive, and at the same time, early intervention is very critical to the prognosis of the child for further education and even employment later on. Since it's so important and so expensive, I believe that every citizen (Singaporean) child should get some basic subsidy, and then on top of that it can be means-tested so that those who need more can receive more help."

Help doesn't end there. When disabled children grow up, the plan is to help them lead independent lives.

And getting them trained and placed into jobs is one way.

The Committee is hoping that jobs for the disabled would be market-driven and not as a form of welfare.

David Wong, Sub Committee Chairman for Employment, Enabling MasterPlan Steering Committee, said: "I think (the) important thing (is that) we look at people with disabilities from a demand angle, that means what a company needs in terms of skill, in terms of contribution, and then pay them according to skill and contribution. In the past, when we looked at the disabled community, we looked at their disability and then came up with training, and so on and so forth, which might not be what the market is looking for."

The Committee also wants to broaden the criteria of the Enable Fund, which offers companies a grant of $5,000 per person if they employ at least four disabled people.

David Wong said: "The key recommendation from the committee is that in the past we needed four. Now we want to include less than four, and also to include some of the outsourced companies as well."

There is also a suggestion to rename the Enable Fund as Open Door Fund, and for companies to qualify for the fund even if they hire just one disabled person.

Another recommendation by the committee looks into getting help for families with disabled persons. One suggestion is to extend the maid levy concessions to them.

In addition, "the whole scope of services given to the elderly can be expanded to include the disabled as well", said Lee Kim Siang, Adviser to Community, Residential and Caregiving Support Sub-Committee of the Enabling Masterplan Steering Committee.

These services include free delivery of meals, bringing the disabled to see doctors at the hospitals, outings for them, and doing the laundry for those who need it.

"In the old days, they were only for the elderly... we can open up (these services) to all the disabled people and perhaps include the family members as well, because if they can't cope, we've got to look after them as well," said Mr Lee.

The Committee expects most of the 31 recommendations to be implemented by 2011.

The Government had earlier set targets to put in barrier-free access to buildings and a disabled-friendly transport system by 2013.

The Committee is urging the government to expedite these programmes so as to speed up the integration of the disabled into Singapore society. - CNA/ir