Speech by President Halimah Yacob at Club HEAL's 10th Anniversary Gala Dinner

Ms Rahayu Mahzam, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Law, and Patron of Club HEAL

Dr Radiah Salim, President of Club HEAL

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good evening. I am deeply heartened to join Club HEAL’s 10th Anniversary Fundraising Gala Dinner. It is my pleasure to celebrate this important milestone with you. Congratulations on achieving a decade of service to the community. 

Club HEAL has a special place in my heart. Since 2012, Club HEAL has focused on the healing and recovery of persons with mental health conditions, as well as the journey of caregivers. It is premised on inspiring Hope, Empowering lives, fostering Acceptance and spreading Love. Over the years, Club HEAL has remained dedicated to offering safe spaces for people in the community to help them feel better and reach out to others. I fondly remember attending the six book launches by Club HEAL and I continue to be inspired and encouraged by the words of the writers and mental health advocates.

 Club HEAL has grown remarkably over the past 10 years. It has supported and assisted close to 10,000 clients and caregivers through various programmes and services. Club HEAL currently has four mental wellness centres – Bukit Batok East, Marsiling, Pasir Ris East, and Buangkok Crescent. I was happy to be at the launch of the Bukit Batok East and Marsiling centres when they first opened, and I am pleased to hear that a fifth centre, at Eunos, will be launched soon. To complement its mental wellness centres, Club HEAL has also strengthened outreach initiatives through befriending programmes, public talks, workshops, and participating at conferences, as well as onsite engagements at community events. There are also community intervention teams at the centres to provide mental health assessments and psychosocial interventions to persons with mental health needs.

Such efforts by Club HEAL and other Social Service Agencies (SSAs) have encouraged help-seeking behaviour and reduced the stigma associated with mental health conditions. The National Population Health Survey 2021 found that the proportion of Singapore residents who were willing to seek help from healthcare professionals to cope with stress, had risen significantly from 47.8% in 2019 to 58.3% in 2021. It is encouraging that more people are forthcoming about their mental health conditions and open to seeking help so that they can better understand and cope with their situation.

Some caregivers have also approached Club HEAL for guidance to provide better care to their loved ones, as their family members and friends may not fully empathise with them or are unable to understand the challenges they face. Caregivers of persons with mental health conditions face unique challenges – some have to look after loved ones who are not receiving treatment, or who have defaulted on their treatment. Others face difficult family circumstances and stigmatisation, or struggle to find employment which offers the flexibility they need to care for their loved ones. Sometimes, being a caregiver can also trigger symptoms such as burnout and feelings of isolation, which can escalate to depression if unaddressed.

To address these challenges and enhance support for clients and their caregivers, Club HEAL, together with the Ministry of Health and the Agency for Integrated Care, set up a community outreach team dedicated to supporting caregivers and introduced a buddy system for caregivers. Club HEAL also helps to link caregivers to resources and avenues for support. Providing better support to caregivers is one of the reasons we designated the theme for the President’s Challenge 2023 to be ‘Caring for Caregivers’.

In addition to caregivers, there are two groups of Singaporeans that we must look out for in our efforts to promote mental health – our youth and our seniors.

Club HEAL is one of the four SSAs appointed to be part of the SYiNC programme, a pilot project by the President’s Challenge and the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) to boost community-based support for youth with mental health conditions. Launched in March last year, the SSAs under this programme have been trained by IMH to provide intervention and psycho-social support to youth between the ages of 13 and 19 years old with mild to moderate mental health conditions such as stress-related disorders, depression, addictions, and self-harm behaviour.

I am glad that the four SSAs have completed the SYiNC training with IMH in November 2022. Club HEAL has been prepared to receive referrals from IMH since January 2023, mainly targeting clients in the northern region. To ensure competent and consistent care provided by the youth mental health team in the community, they will be receiving bi-monthly case conferences and supervision by IMH throughout the first year. This co-management arrangement is one of the ways we hope to provide quality community-based support to youth with mental health conditions. We want our children to be well.

As our population ages, it is also important to pay attention to the mental health of our seniors. Mental health must be considered a crucial component of active ageing. However, the National Population Health Survey 2021 found that older adults aged 60 to 74 years were the least willing to seek help for mental health from healthcare professionals or informal support networks. I am hopeful that Club HEAL’s new centre in Eunos will enable it to reach out to more seniors as well as caregivers.

Together, we can build a community of care. Let me share the story of Aneez Fathima, who demonstrated resilience and perseverance during a difficult time, and in turn helped others in the community. I first met her at Bukit Batok East when I was a Member of Parliament. She was going through a difficult time after the loss of her husband and son, and she shared her journey with me. Despite her individual struggles, she had a compassionate heart to serve and to support others in tough circumstances. Aneez began volunteering with Club HEAL and soon after joined as a counsellor. She impressed me with her deep empathy for people going through grief and bereavement. 

I have witnessed Club HEAL’s progress over the decade and I applaud it for its good work. Many of Club HEAL’s activities are self-funded. Let us come together and be a true friend to our “healing friends” at Club HEAL. We can spread the word about Club HEAL and do our part to support its noble cause of assisting and empowering persons with mental health conditions as well as their caregivers.

In closing, I thank the members of the Management Committee and all staff members of Club HEAL, for their continued commitment to promote a stigma-free society for healing and recovery. To all friends of Club HEAL, we value you, we are grateful for you, and you have made an incredible difference in precious lives.  

I wish everyone a pleasant and enjoyable evening ahead. Thank you.