Service to Elderly Community in Singapore

Question: Discuss about the Report for Service to Elderly Community in Singapore. Answer: Introduction Singapore's population is ageing dramatically, both rapidly as well as disproportionately (Choo et al., 1991). Hence, we will be looking at the elderly community in Singapore as our main research topic. Taken from a report on Ageing Population, it was stated that in 2005, one in 12 residence was above 65 years old, however in 2030, the number will be one in five residence will be age 65 years or older (Report on Ageing Population, 2006). This shows that there will be more elderly as compared to the younger population. Issues arise relating to elderly includes elder care, medical, housing as well as financial. Survey was done and concluded that elderly patients with dementia present with complex problems and management requires attention. The attention was not only to the patients' medical problems and rehabilitation strategies but also to education, emotional support and help for their frequently stressed out carers (Shadevan, Lim, Choo, 1999). 100 case records of elderly patients with dementia and that was admitted consecutively were systematically reviewed. The extraction of the patients demographic data, underlying cause(s) of dementia, carers difficulties and the patients functional disability was done. It was concluded that there is an important need for improvement in educating both the public and primary care physicians in Singapore about the early features of dementia (Shadevan, Lim, Choo, 1999). Research by Goh( 2011), focused on understanding the factors associated with utilization of post-acute care (PAC) services in Singapore and how these are woven into family care as well as the lived experience of elderly persons and their families (Goh, 2011). In his studies, it was noted that there is a downward trend in multi-generation household which means that different generation staying under one roof. This can be a combination of grandparents, parents and children. However, as compare to other Asian countries, Singapore is still at the high volume of multi-generation household (Committee on Ageing Issues, 2006; Knodel Debavalya, 1997). 299 elderly took part in the study and the research question in the study take into factors which includes physical, social, organizational, environment as well as phychological associated with the use of PAC. The results combined both quantitative and qualitative approached which was used in the research to explore the factor which is associated with the use of PAC services or also known as the mixed model (Tashakkori Teddlie, 1998). Goh(2011) studies brought up that there are only few studies which focuses the usage of either nursing home or day care centres. The studies done across the different population group that is the elderly in the nursing home and day care centre uses different perspectives and methodology. The nursing home studies show that the elderly persons physical and mental impairment and the social and psychological problems associated with caring for these dependent elderly persons are determinants for nursing-home use. Provider-related issues such as registration process, attractiveness of the program accessibility and whether the centers are ethnically or culturally sensitive, however, are found to be factors that either hinder or facilitate the use of the day centers. This made the comparison difficult and the sample size of the study was small and difficult to generalized (Goh, 2011). Another study that was done relating to elderly is by Ng, Luo and Heng (2014), whereby they make use of the Latent Class Analysis (LCA) with an aim to identify health status pro?les and examine the socio-demographic characteristics associated with each pro?le. After examining the profiles, the came into two objectives for their research study which are firstly, identifiying the health status profiles of older adults based on measures of health in the mental, physical and social dimensions. The second objectives were to examine the socio-demographic characteristic associated with each health status profile. (Ng, Luo Heng, 2014). 2,444 community survey was done at Marine Parade, Singapore for respondent who are 60 years old and above. The LCA was performed with seven health indicator which is the number of chronic conditions, pain, depression, social isolation, activities of daily living (ADL) dependency, cognitive and frequent of socialization to identify the distinct classes of health status profiles. It was noted that those with primary and lower education, and were unemployed or not employed were more likely to be Health at risk. With this indicator, it was then categories under the social-demographic characteristics associated with each profile (Ng, Luo Heng, 2014). The World Health Organisation (WHO) has de?ned health as not merely the absence of disease or in?rmity, but a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being. Elderly has often be associated with health. Looking at health status from a multidimensional perspective would allow for the identi?cation of different healthcare needs so that resources can be adjusted or utilised to meet the various healthcare demands. According to Ng, Luo and Hend (2014), there have been no studies that used LCA to investigate the health status of the elderly in Singapore (Ng, Luo Heng, 2014). Taking into consideration on 2 focus points of the research study, we will look into the ageing population and the disease which not only include physical illness but includes the psychological illnesses. In Singapore, there is organisation as well as government bodies which have been looking into the ageing population issues such as the Singapore Silver Pages which is an initiative by Agency for Integrated Care as well as the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF). Research Question Does elderly population who received assistant from government or organisation bodies have a better ageing life. Hypothesis Elderly population in Singapore who are above the age of 60 years old who received financial help from the government or organisation bodies have a better ageing life? Elderly population in Singapore who are above the age of 60 years old who gets proper medical health care which includes physically, mentally and psychologically have a better ageing life? With proper government or organizational bodies intervention to help the ageing population, helps in given elderly above the age of 60 years old a more secure ageing life? B. Data and Research Design i) Sampling: Sample refers to the targeted group that can reflect exact perception of the entire population. It is highly important to select an appropriate sample in order to attain most efficient research findings. The academic social research work extensively focuses on two major type of sampling techniques in order to ensure the quality research findings. These sampling techniques are probability sampling technique as well as non-probability sampling techniques (Bazeley Jackson, 2013). Probability sampling techniques uses biasness in order to select a pertinent set of respondents. On the other hand, non-probability sampling techniques randomly select the respondents in order to ensure that no amount of human emotion can contaminate the collected data. The probability sampling technique is highly useful to select the most appropriate respondents, where the expert of inside information is needed. The random process cannot ensure that every respondent will have somewhat knowledge regarding certain research topic. In this context, the current social issue is related to the service provided to the social community. The information will be naturally available to the families of elderly people that have received the service of safety net of Singapore (Cleary et al., 2014). Therefore, snowball probability sampling technique will be most effective for collecting the particular information. The families of the clients, who have received help from social safety net of Singapore, will be asked to take part in the research. 50 knowledgeable respondents will be selected from there in order to evaluate their responses. ii) Unit of Analysis and Measurement: Unit of analysis plays a very crucial role in the context of pertaining social science research. There are ranges of thing that can be considered as unit in the research. However, in social science research the following are mostly recognized as the unit of analysis. Groups Individuals Artifacts Geographical Units Social Interactions In the current context the condition of the each elderly people in Singapore will determine the result of the study. However, the individual score would not be considered in the analysis. Rather, it would use the segregate of the elderly communitys opinion. Therefore, it can be easily confirmed that for the current study the group, which means the elderly community will be unit of analysis. The measurement is another most important part of the social research study. There are two most integral part of the measurement, which are level of measurement as well as reliability of measurement. Academic research exclusively uses four kinds of different levels of measurement, which are nominal, ordinal, interval as well as ratio. In the current study, the segregate of the elderly peoples score will define the research outcomes. Therefore, the interval level of measures will be most effective for the current research work. On the other hand, reliability of measurement is highly effective to estimate how far the research findings can be reliable (Mackey Gass, 2015). In this context, the inter rater reliability will be used. The academic social research work also face a greater concern in regard with the validity of measurement. Often, it has been noticed that the research work has been failed due to the wrong question format or wrong group. Therefore, the current research work mu st consider every angle in the context of validity. iii) Research Design: There are two types of data collection method which are primary and secondary. Primary data means fresh information that is collected from several respondents. On the other hand, secondary data is collected from previous research works, published journal articles and newspapers. In this research, it is important to collect opinion of people in order to understand the current scenario of the service provided to the elderly people in Singapore. That is why primary research method will be used in this research by using survey questionnaire method. It will be helpful to grasp the exact scenario of the elderly community in Singapore Primarily, four types of research philosophies are vastly used in most of the researches which are positivism, realism, pragmatism and interpretivism. Pragmatism research philosophy concentrates on the respondents awareness. On the other hand, realism mostly focuses on authenticity of the current condition along with current belief regarding the research issue (Bazeley Jackson, 2013). Pragmatism research issue deals with the relation between the research contributors and respondents in the particular research work. Positivism research philosophy helps a research work to work through an appropriately developed path. For this research, positivism research philosophy is selected as it will help to gather relevant and realistic data related to the research topic. In order to conduct the research in a rightful manner, it is important to select a proper research approach. It will help to gain precise idea and guideline to choose appropriate research activities at all time. Two most popular research approaches are deductive research approach and inductive research approach. Deductive research approach mostly relies on empirical research findings in order to test the research expectations. It also deals with the testing of hypothesis in order to figure out the current conditions of the research issue (Cleary et al., 2014). As it uses empirical research findings, it will help to determine whether the developed hypothesises are true or false. On the other hand, inductive research approach serves so that new ideas and theories can be developed related to the research issue. This research work that is related to understand the current scenario of the service provided to the elderly community will be explored productively if deductive research approac h is used in it. This research has no intention to develop new theories and ideas and on the other hand, empirical research will help to figure out several situations associated to the service provided to the elderly community (Lewis, 2015). As a result, it will be possible to find most realistic research findings with the presence of deductive research approach. There are three types of research designs available that mostly used in research works. They are descriptive, exploratory, and explanatory. Exploratory research design tends to explore aim and objectives of the research, where research aim is incomplete (Punch, 2013). On the other hand, explanatory research design aims to describe the issues of research in a manner that the research outcomes would be capable to explain aims and objectives with a clear understanding. For this research work, descriptive research design will be used as it is the most effective way to describe the research aim (Mackey Gass, 2015). In order to conduct the research properly and to get expected results, descriptive research will help to understand every aspect of the research issue. iv) Method of Data Analysis: Data analysis one of the most essential part of any research project. Therefore, every research work must focus on effective data analysis that would ensure most positive outcomes. In this context, the descriptive statistics will be used for interpreting the data. The descriptive statistics uses central tendency, after converting it into tabular format, for analyzing the data. Based on the research questions, the responds will also be converted into percentage format to figure out whether the responds are indicating positive or negative feedbacks (Flick, 2015). C. Concluding Remarks Ethical Consideration As this research will follow primary research method, ethical consideration will play a major role in it. People from different race, sex and background will participate in this research. Their responds miay put their lives in danger (Gajjar, 2013). That is why; it will be taken care of that any data related to this research will be kept as classified as possible. In no condition, personal information of the participants, such as name or contact details will be shared with any third party. Besides, participants will never be involved without their full consent. The use of force will be strictly prohibited within the research premises. They will have the full right to quit the survey at any point of time (Ritchie, 2013). They will not be coerced to take the survey and reason behind the survey will be clearly told to them. In addition, the research workers would not participate in any monetary transaction with the third party regarding the research work. Research Limitations Every research work is bound to face several challenges and this one is no exception. In is assumed that the current research project is most likely experience two major issues, which are finance and time constraint, while doing the research were. It is evident that without the money the quality of the research project will bound to be compromised. Money will be most important challenge as the budget is quite low. In addition, this research project will experience a severe shortage of time and as a result, it will not be possible to evaluate the research issue properly (Panneerselvam, 2014). Besides, Government of Singapore is directly involved in their service provision to the elderly community. That is why; it was almost impossible to gather data from government offices without proper permission. Due to lack of time, it will be also difficult to research a lot of literature in order to find out the proper one. References Bazeley, P. Jackson, K. eds., (2013).Qualitative data analysis with NVivo. Sage Publications Limited. Choo, P. W. J., Sahadevan, S., Chee, Y. C. et al. (1991) Health care services for the elderlya Singapore perspective. Singapore Med. J. 32, 319-323. Cleary, M., Horsfall, J. Hayter, M. (2014). Data collection and sampling in qualitative research: does size matter?.Journal of Advanced Nursing. 70(3),473-475. Committee on Ageing Issues. (2006). 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