SINGAPORE - Seniors, including wheelchair users, can soon get wider toilet entrances and foldable shower seats in their Housing Board homes.

These are among the measures the authorities will roll out to make HDB homes more elder-friendly under an upgraded Enhancement for Active Seniors (Ease) 2.0 programme, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced in his National Day Rally speech on Sunday.

These steps are part of a new broader Age Well SG programme to prepare for a “super-aged society”, said PM Lee.

It will complement the Healthier SG movement, which aims to improve the health of seniors, he noted.

The move to make Singapore’s living spaces more senior-friendly will start with towns with the most seniors, such as Ang Mo Kio and Bukit Merah, before being expanded nationwide.

Apart from wider toilet entrances and foldable shower seats within flats, streets and linkways that seniors frequent will be revamped to make neighbourhoods safer. There will also be more shelters and rest points, said PM Lee.

To encourage seniors to stay active, therapeutic gardens, fitness trails and exercise machines will also be made available.

Roads will also be more pedestrian-friendly, with longer green-man signals to allow more time for seniors to cross the road.

There will be barrier-free ramps and raised zebra crossings to help wheelchair users. Three-dimensional road markings will be installed and roads narrowed to slow cars down, added PM Lee.

Block signs will also be bigger and more colourful, with familiar symbols – such as satay, the beloved Singapore delicacy – to help seniors remember where they live.

“Many seniors have told us they want to live out their golden years in their own homes and neighbourhoods,” PM Lee said.

“It is a familiar environment, a cosy sanctuary, and they have established deep roots and meaningful friendships. And this is a very good thing. We will help as many seniors age in place as we can.”

Right now, under the Ease programme, households with seniors can have elder-friendly fittings and features, such as ramps for multi-step entrances and grab bars, installed in their flats at subsidised rates.

Launched in July 2012, Ease is offered in tandem with the Home Improvement Programme or via a direct application to HDB.

To be eligible, households must have a family member aged 65 and above, or aged between 60 and 64 and in need of help with at least one activity of daily living, such as bathing or dressing.

Separately, PM Lee said more assisted living facilities would be built. These include community care apartments serving not just seniors with dementia, but also those who are well, he added.

In March, the Ministry of National Development said around 200 community care apartments in Bedok would be made available in 2023 to seniors aged 65 and older.

This came after a positive response to the first two pilots of such flats in Bukit Batok and Queenstown, with seniors asking HDB to build more of them.

PM Lee on Sunday also pointed to the Government’s support for Integrated Dementia Assisted Living. Otherwise known as IDeAL, it is a ground-up project by social service agency Dementia Singapore that aims to help seniors with mild dementia.

As part of the project, the void deck of Block 115 Kebun Baru has been turned into a community living room, where seniors have “fun and games, exercise, get their haircuts, and eat together”, PM Lee said.

On “Ji Lao” (Hokkien for the “second floor” of the block), there are shared facilities such as a community kitchen, where they cook and hang out, and a telehealth room, where staff can monitor the seniors’ vital signs and arrange for check-ups.

PM Lee noted that many seniors with dementia continue living within their own flats in this block, while enjoying the warmth of their friends and community downstairs.

“We will need a whole range of these facilities – whether for assisted living, or the active ageing centres – to serve old folk with different needs,” he said.

“Some of these already exist today, but we need to improve them, scale them up, and get ready for the large numbers down the road.”

At present, about one in five Singaporeans is a senior aged 65 and above. By 2030, nearly one in four Singaporeans will be a senior, said PM Lee.

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Watch PM Lee’s National Day Rally speech here: