A study into the prevalence of mental health issues in Singapore has recently released its findings. The second such study so far, the Singapore Mental Health Study 2016 started in April 2015 and took into account data from interviews with 6,126 Singaporeans and permanent residents. It reports that 1 in 7 of those resident in Singapore will suffer from a mental health issue in their lifetime, up from 1 in 8 reported in an earlier study in 2010.
This finding is significant for CAL, as it shows that the number of caregivers in Singapore is substantially higher than the previous estimate. Assuming that there is one caregiver for every person with a mental health issue, this would mean an increase of approximately 70,000 caregivers to 496,000 in total.
This figure derives from 3.47 million Singaporeans (as of 2018), and the number of caregivers could be much higher when accounting for non-citizens resident in Singapore as well.
These figures mean that CAL has long journey ahead of it in training and equipping caregivers. With just over 3,200 caregivers trained under CAL's Caregivers-to-Caregivers Training Programme (C2C), much more can still be done to reach out to the large number of caregivers in need of support.
You can help make a difference by telling caregivers you know about CAL's free training programmes. Through learning how to be better caregivers, they can in turn better care for their loved ones with mental health issues.
View statistics from the Singapore Mental Health Study 2016 in an article by TODAY newspaper, available here.