SINGAPORE – Mr Fabian Tan conducts exercise sessions and arts activities for the elderly as a senior community care associate at All Saints Home’s senior care centre in Yishun.
“It really gives me a lot of joy which I never had in my over 20 years in logistics,” he said, recounting how an elderly woman opened up to him about her family and wanted to come to the centre more often to see him and her friends.
The 48-year-old made a career switch to eldercare in 2022, after over 20 years in the logistics industry. He wanted to contribute back to society after his father died seven years ago.
He said: “I didn’t do my duty as a son, so when he passed on, it was hard for me.”
Mr Fabian Tan was promoted to senior community care associate in March 2024, and tasked to lead the activity team to plan activities and better engage seniors. He is among the roughly 500 workers who have taken on redesigned roles under a new career track which was piloted for support care staff.
Piloted from 2021 to 2024, the new track will be rolled out across the sector, said Minister of State for Health Rahayu Mahzam on Oct 2.
She was speaking at the Community Care Manpower Development and Excellence Awards Ceremony organised by the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC).
“The new track provides new opportunities for support care staff progression, by broadening their roles and enabling cross-deployment across various care settings,” she said.
The community care career track provides a progression pathway for professionals through four roles: community care associate, senior community care associate, community care executive, and community care manager.
These roles will be hired in nursing homes and senior care centres. There are around 500 community care associates and senior community care associates now.
AIC and the Health Ministry embarked on a pilot to trial the four new redesigned roles in eight organisations from 2021 to 2024.
The community care associate and senior community care associate roles involve providing basic clinical and rehabilitative care to seniors and administrative and operational support to supervisors. These roles can be taken up by junior care staff, such as healthcare assistants.
The community care executives and community care managers can take on more strategic responsibilities such as establishing external partnerships and improving the psychosocial care of seniors. These positions are suitable for centre supervisors and managers to transit to.
To prepare support care staff for these new roles, AIC, in partnership with the MOH, SkillsFuture Singapore and industry stakeholders, have accredited the training of community care associates as part of the national Skills Framework for Healthcare.
Community care career track rolled out for eldercare sector
