The People’s Action Party Seniors Group (PAPSG) will train dedicated teams of volunteers to identify and support socially isolated seniors in residential areas with high proportion of seniors.
Integrating seamlessly with existing house visits and Meet-the-People Sessions, these trained volunteers will actively befriend vulnerable seniors and connect them directly to established healthcare and social service networks.
The initiative will launch across nine initial branches, with plans to eventually expand the programme islandwide. Chaired by members of the PAPSG executive committee, the rollout includes Bedok, Bukit Batok East, Chua Chu Kang, Changi-Simei, Kaki Bukit, Kebun Baru, Nee Soon East, Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru, and Toa Payoh Central.
Speaking at an event at Furama Riverfront to mark the International Day of Older Persons on 4 October, PAPSG Chairman Dr Tan See Leng highlighted social isolation as one of the group’s primary concerns as Singapore’s population ages.
Singapore is now a super-aged society, with 21.4 per cent of its citizen population aged 65 and older as at June 2026, according to the latest data released on Sept 25.
“Some seniors are slipping through the cracks and living in total isolation,” Dr Tan, who is also Minister for Trade and Industry (Energy and Industry), told an audience of 300—including current and retired MPs, branch chairs, party activists, and friends of PAP.
“That’s why we are mobilising our branches to step up. We need a full-scale community movement to combat social isolation and ensure someone is always looking out for these seniors.”
The initiative also directly addresses feedback from the ground. Between February and August 2026, the PAPSG hosted four community conversations and a dialogue session where participants called for strengthened support networks for seniors living alone.
PAPSG vice-chairman Dinesh Vasu Dash said volunteers will receive baseline training in competencies like befriending. However, he emphasised that this training structure will evolve as teams learns from their experiences during the pilot.
“It won’t be a single programme that we just roll out and then we fold our arms and say we’ve done our jobs,” he said.
Rather than managing complex needs themselves, volunteers will act as a bridge to professional services if a resident requires specialised support, such as mental health intervention, he explained.
Additionally, the PAPSG Exco team will work closely with participating branches to scale operational best practices and keep volunteers updated on national policy changes.
Mr Dinesh added that the group is leveraging the existing strengths of individual branches rather than introducing entirely new activities, to ensure the programme remains sustainable.
Fellow PAPSG vice-chairman Rahayu Mahzam said party volunteers can provide last-mile support as they are already familiar with residents through weekly Meet-the-People Sessions and house visits.
“These may be isolated seniors who often do not know where to seek help,” said Ms Rahayu, who is also Minister of State for Health and Digital Development and Information.
“By befriending these residents and connecting them with available resources and programmes they might otherwise miss, we can prevent this silent, vulnerable group from slipping through the cracks.”
She added that the initiative is intended to complement existing efforts such as those by Silver Generation Ambassadors, rather than duplicate them.
At the event, Cai Yinzhou, a member of the PAP Exco, also shared a three-point tai chi framework to guide community volunteers on building relationships with seniors living alone. They are:
- Catch early: Identify seniors living alone who may be at risk of social isolation.
- Hold the relationship: Build trust and keep the relationship warm through regular check-ins.
- Channel support: Link seniors to volunteers, networks, and relevant networks like Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) for coordinated support.
Putting this into practice, Mr Cai’s dedicated outreach team conducts routine weekly checks on vulnerable rental flat residents and solitary seniors living in Toa Payoh Central.
At the event, the ExCo launched a customisable resource template to help branches to convey information more effectively and make it easier for seniors to seek assistance.
Branches can tailor the template with information specific to their constituencies, such as Meet-the-People Session details and hotlines of nearby community services, and distribute it in formats including printed sheets, soft copies or fridge magnets.
Dr Tan emphasised that PAPSG will always be a trusted bridge between our seniors and the government.
“We will ensure that both your generation and mine will continue to have that peace of mind, to always be able to look to our government,” he said.
“We also want to ensure that our national policies are not just shaped by real life experiences, but will pre-emptively and proactively fulfil the evolving needs, aspirations, and the happiness of all our seniors.”
