Day Rehabilitation Centre

Effective Rehabilitative Care for the Chronically Ill

As Singapore faces the challenges of a rapidly aging population, there is a significant rise in the number of sufferers of chronic diseases and physical or cognitive decline. Over the two years of implementing home healthcare services in the western region of Singapore, Tzu Chi has discovered that in fact, the conditions of many of these patients could have been improved or prevented from worsening through physical therapy.

Since after Tzu Chi took over the operations of Lakeside Family Medicine Clinic in November 2016, the GP outpatient services formerly provided by the Tzu Chi Free Health Screening and Medical Clinic were relocated to the Family Medicine Clinic. With the approval of the Ministry of Health, the vacated space that was previously taken up by the Free Health Screening and Medical Clinic was refurbished into the Tzu Chi Day Rehabilitation Centre, to better serve the needs of an aging population. The Centre is replete with two consultation rooms, a rehabilitation room, an electroconvulsive therapy room, an occupational therapy room, and a neurological rehabilitation room.

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Stroke survivors, sufferers of Parkinson’s disease and those having chronic pain in the neck, back and/or knees are the most common patients at the Day Rehabilitation Centre, and a significant number of them are senior citizens. The long and slow process of rehabilitation not only requires physiotherapy, but the mindset of the patients towards recovery plays an important role, too. With the company and encouragement of caring volunteers who serve at the Centre, the rehabilitation process has become a more bearable and heart-warming experience for many of the patients.

The Day Rehabilitation Centre is a participating healthcare centre under MOH’s Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS). CHAS card holders are entitled to one of the two tiers of subsidies. Blue CHAS card holders only need to pay a token sum of $5 as an administrative fee, while orange CHAS card holders need to pay a slightly higher token fee of $10.