The 75-year-old Mr Lee once lived in complete isolation, hiding behind closed doors and windows. Embarrassed by the severe eczema that left his entire body covered in dry, flaky skin, he avoided being seen in public. His days were spent in isolation in a poorly ventilated home where his condition only worsened, but Mr Lee was adamant about managing it on his own.
Senior Healthcare Assistant from Fei Yue, Roi Tawng, recalls that two things struck her most when she first met Mr Lee at his residence: his floor was littered with flaky skin, and he was visibly feeble from undernourishment. Sparing the times that his neighbours helped him buy food, Mr Lee had no way to eat and continued his life as a recluse.
But within a year, things turned around for Mr Lee. From total isolation, he started venturing into public again, attending church service every Sunday and finding a new community. With his newfound confidence and comfort in his skin, Mr Lee mostly lives an independent life now, buying his meals and managing his needs.
“I feel very happy about the difference between before and after Mr Lee accepted my service and help. When clients feel happy, I’m even happier for them,” says Roi Tawng, who initially faced resistance from Mr Lee. When AIC referred Mr Lee to Fei Yue Home Care, Roi Tawng was assigned to provide Home Personal Care services. She reported back to the department that he was not coping well with his worsening skin condition, and he was offered personal hygiene assistance, including showering, regular hair cutting, and nail trimming. But he refused to accept the help.
The empathetic Roi Tawng was unfazed. Originally a healthcare worker in Myanmar, she has served in Singapore’s eldercare sector for more than 10 years and is quite familiar with the complex emotions seniors experience when they need to accept intervention and support. “He had lived independently for a long time, so it was really challenging for him to accept he needed somebody’s help.”
She persisted and gradually chipped away at the high wall he had raised with her kindness and heart of service. “It is tough to think about a stranger doing things like showering you, touching your body, and so on. This is where I always patiently explain what I am doing and slowly build a relationship.” For her, maintaining a client’s dignity is a crucial part of her job. “It is really important to the person who feels helpless.”
To help Mr Lee regain more of his independence, Roi Tawng also introduced rehabilitative limb maintenance exercises that improved his overall mobility. This was key in helping Mr Lee go from being mostly homebound to enjoying freedom of movement.
And Mr Lee also discovered another way to stay connected with people and the world. During her visits, Roi Tawng noticed that his phone was never switched on. She later discovered Mr Lee did not know how to use his smartphone and, frustrated, had stopped charging it entirely. This exacerbated his social isolation, as he was unable to contact anyone, including his son. With every subsequent visit, Roi Tawng taught him how to use his phone, helping him overcome his frustrations with the device and reconnect with old friends he had lost touch with.
For many seniors like Mr Lee, when the demands of ageing get overwhelming, even the activities of daily living can be unmanageable, and this puts them at risk of needing to be sent to an institution. For care workers like Roi Tawng and Fei Yue Home Care, their work revolves around ensuring seniors’ ability to age in place. Their services fall into four categories – Home Medical, Home Nursing, Home Personal Care, and Home Therapy – covering everything from personal hygiene, medicine management, and physical rehabilitation to nursing care. This holistic range of services helps many seniors stay well, age well, and enjoy a high quality of life without being uprooted from their familiar surroundings and community. Even when convincing clients to accept help can be challenging, and the work is often energy-intensive, Roi Tawng’s conviction remains strong: “I like to help those who really need my help and help them to live comfortably.”
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Learn more about Fei Yue Healthcare Support Department’s services that make a difference to seniors’ lives: https://fycs.org/seniors/healthcare-support-department/
