Newsletter: Vol. 25 Issue 1 (January – February 2021)
Meet our 3 elderlies at Metta Day Rehabilitation Centre for the Elderly (MDRCE) and how they renewed hope to lead a dignified and independent lives. 65-year-old Mr Low Nguan Khoon, a client at Metta Day Rehabilitation Centre for the Elderly (MDRCE), is among the growing numbers who stay all alone by himself. Mr Low has never been married and gets by his daily living selling tissue papers at bus interchanges. A serious contusion on his right hip as a result of a bad fall many years ago has made his mobility a bigger challenge. All by himself in a 3-room flat, Mr Low is left to self-care with no one to assist him in his mobility.
A bad fall in 2014 resulted in Mdm Aw Ah Yee having poor strength to her lower limbs and not being able to stand or walk steadily. The 82-year old is currently receiving rehabilitation at MDRCE. She is widowed and lives by herself in an HDB flat near Simei.
66-year-old Mr Ong Siew Ho had never been married. He lives with his single older brother. Mr Ong suffers from a partial stroke on the left side of his body in 2012 that impedes his mobility to move about. He was referred to MDRCE and is put on a strength and exercise program to maintain his functional mobility through MDRCE’s therapies. Years of regular visits to MDRCE has finally seen improvements in Mr Ong’s condition.
For Mr Low, Mdm Aw, and Mr Ong, the Lunar New Year is no different from any other normal day. Being physically challenged as a result of their ailment also limits their ability to leave their homes as much as possible. For one thing, the years of youth and being healthy and mobile is what all of them yearn for. They are among the elderlies who passed the medical means testing and are currently receiving free physiotherapy and occupational therapy sessions regularly at MDRCE. Being at MDRCE not only allow them companionship in the form of Metta’s therapists and staff but also gives them renewed hope as their condition gradually improve over time through the programmes and treatments.
After all, there is one wish that all three of them have in common for the new year: the ability to be independent and perform basic activities of daily living (ADLs) that they could once handle with ease.
