![\"Lynn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/74b29fdcfca4c43429186c09983f8739ee53e78a558eafe6c95169815bd10ca3.webp\")
<\/p>\nSINGAPORE \u2013 Lynn Leng, 55, has spent the past decade caring for her 56-year-old husband, George, who was diagnosed with young-onset dementia. However, his care needs have intensified as his condition has advanced to the late stage.<\/p>\n
In mid-2025, George started attending daycare at a New Horizon Centre, which provided him with routine and gave Leng much-needed respite. That support ended in October when he was discharged following a seizure. The health episode left him unable to stand independently, requiring more care.<\/p>\n
At home, the physical toll mounted. Leng developed knee and lower back issues from constantly transferring her 1.83m-tall husband between the bed, sofa and bathroom, even with aid from her domestic helper.<\/p>\n
Relief finally arrived when she met Esther Vanessa Chua, the senior manager of palliative care at Dementia Singapore.<\/p>\n
Through Chua, Leng discovered that George was eligible for a new initiative, called Post Diagnostic Support Plus (PDS+), that offers early palliative care and home support for people living with dementia and their caregivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Announced on Sept 15, PDS+ is developed by Dementia Singapore and Lien Foundation, with a $3.3 million four-year grant from the latter.<\/p>\n
The service is being piloted at the four New Horizon Centres that provide daycare services for people with dementia. These centres, located in Bukit Batok, Jurong Point, Tampines and Toa Payoh, are managed by Dementia Singapore.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very anxious about every blister that he had,\u201d said Leng, recalling how helpful it was when Chua arranged for a physiotherapist to visit her home.<\/p>\n
Leng also hired a second domestic helper to share the load of caregiving.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lynn Leng, 55, has spent the past decade caring for her 56-year-old husband, George, who was diagnosed with young-onset dementia.<\/p>\n
ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG<\/p>\n
PDS+ builds on an earlier Post Diagnostic Support (PDS) programme that Dementia Singapore and the Lien Foundation launched in 2020 to address the immediate post-diagnosis adjustment period. The PDS initiative has since been scaled nationally across other care providers, said the programme director at the foundation, Gabriel Lim.<\/p>\n
PDS+ helps people at the late stage of dementia transition from centre-based to home-based care for up to one year. It plugs a gap as traditional palliative care is typically reserved for patients with a prognosis of under one year and is usually introduced near the end of life.<\/p>\n
PDS+ has serviced 64 families since late November 2024.<\/p>\n
At least 80 front-line Dementia Singapore staff are expected to be trained and more than 280 people living with dementia and their families are expected to benefit directly over the next two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, we want to mainstream this programme,\u201d said Dementia Singapore chairman Phillip Yap.<\/p>\n
Based on the second Well-being of the Singapore Elderly study by the Institute of Mental Health, there were about 74,000 people living with dementia in 2023. This number is estimated to grow to 152,000 by 2030.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a person has dementia, it often comes with many other chronic, long-term illnesses. So care cannot be focused only on the mental health issues of dementia,\u201d Yap said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Furthermore, over time, the condition will also affect the person\u2019s physical function and their ability to upkeep daily activities, such as walking, dressing and toileting, he said.<\/p>\n
Through an interactive AI tool called ACP GO!, PDS+ hopes to help people living with dementia indicate their care preferences earlier in the dementia journey, before decision-making capacities decline.<\/p>\n
These advance care planning conversations, which start when they are still at the centres, help to avoid the distressing guesswork and conflict that often arise in families when making difficult decisions as dementia progresses.<\/p>\n
Dementia Singapore chief executive Bryan Tan said PDS+ provides critical support for families struggling to initiate these conversations.<\/p>\n
He experienced this first-hand when he tried to speak to his father, who was diagnosed with dementia in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day, he fights to regain his identity, his dignity and even his independence,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery conversation I had with him just ended up really bad because he didn\u2019t want to talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dementia Singapore said it will be scaling its ACP Toolkit training and sharing the ACP GO! tool with other healthcare providers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While PDS+ officially offers up to one year of support following the transition to home care, Yap said the programme will continue to offer help even after that. With PDS+, one care worker will be the main point of contact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Leng, PDS+ has been a godsend. \u201cI feel very supported,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SINGAPORE \u2013 Lynn Leng, 55, has spent the past decade caring for her 56-year-old husband, George, who was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":["post-617917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}