Counselling for Family Members of Patients in Palliative Care

Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Health (a) what is the process for family members of patients who are under palliative care to access counselling services; (b) at what stage of the patient's end journey will counselling be provided for the family members; and (c) what is being done to create awareness of this service.

The Senior Minister of State for Health (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan) (for the Minister for Health): Palliative care providers have multidisciplinary care teams that support patients on palliative care services and their family members. These teams comprise staff with experience in counselling, such as medical social workers, counsellors, or pastoral care staff.

The care teams will keep in close touch with family members, assess their needs and provide the necessary support for the patient and the family. This includes support to help family members cope with care-giving and grief management, as well as bereavement care after the patient’s passing. Care teams may also link up families with other support organisations and resources.

MOH has been working with community partners to promote public awareness about palliative care and End-of-Life (EOL) conversations. For example, in conjunction with World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, Singapore Hospice Council held an inaugural community engagement event in October last year, to raise public awareness on the topic. We will continue to work with our community partners on such public outreach and education efforts.

Ms Joan Pereira (Tanjong Pagar): I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. May I know what is the uptake rate for this service and will there be more publicity for such services because it really will help assure the family that there is care for them?

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: I thank the Member for her supplementary questions. Indeed, I think this is a very important issue, in particular, due to our ageing population. The uptake of counselling services is not specifically tracked because it is delivered as part of palliative care. Upon admission into palliative care services, the patients and the family members will be made aware of the counselling services available as part of the holistic assessment in recognition of the patients' and the families' needs. This would include their physical, psycho-social as well as their pastoral needs.

For instance, at St Joseph's Home, counselling actually begins at the point of referral of a patient and the family members into palliative care. The multi-disciplinary team, which comprises the consultants, the nurses, as well as social care staff, will engage the patient as well as the family members in conversations on advance care planning, end-of-life preferences, coping with grief and so on. Counselling usually happens as a natural conversation and is a work-in-progress in that sense. It is an on-going process, as part of palliative care.

In terms of promoting the awareness about end-of-life issues and palliative care services, MOH continues to work with Singapore Hospice Council (SHC) as well as various community partners and providers. For instance, we work with SHC on a community engagement programme. We have a three-year partnership with them from 2017 to 2019 on this community engagement programme to raise awareness among the public about palliative care services as well as end-of-life issues.

We will continue to do so and extend this outreach in terms of raising awareness and also, improving the quality of end-of-life care and extend this to psycho-social support. That will include supportive counselling of patients and their family members.