Over 1,500 people in Sembawang benefit from health, social support scheme for young families

SINGAPORE – A support programme at Sembawang Polyclinic that provides health and social support for young families has helped more than 1,500 participants since starting in November 2023.

FamNex@Bukit Canberra, under interagency programme Family Nexus or FamNex, is a one-stop shop that provides everything from marriage preparation and parenting workshops to lactation support for mothers.

It is one of four of such centres – the others being at Punggol Polyclinic, Choa Chu Kang Polyclinic and Our Tampines Hub – that have been launched since 2022 under a national plan to allow families with young children to access both health and social services in the same location.

The scheme was developed by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Social and Family Development, among other agencies.

This reflects a keen interest among parents to engage in educational and wellness-building activities with their children, said Minister for Social and Family Development and Second Minister for Health Masagos Zulkifli on July 2.

Giving an update in Parliament on the Family Nexus initiative in response to questions from three MPs, Mr Masagos said FamNex@OTH has received more than 380 cases from community nurses since its soft launch in November 2022, while FamNex@Punggol has referred more than 500 cases to social service agencies from December 2023 to May 2024.

He said it helps to have both social and health services at the same site to support families.

“Sometimes, mothers needs more help than the children they bring to the Nexus, and the children then get support and playing time while the issues of the mother are being addressed,” said Mr Masagos.

Family Nexus aims to address all the challenges that young families face. For example, if a family has difficulty getting a child into childcare because of financial constraints or other reasons, FamNex will connect the family with relevant agencies.

It also provides young families with access to developmental assessment and screening for growth concerns for children, and postnatal depression for mothers.

Dr Wan Rizal Wan Zakariah (Jalan Besar GRC) and Ms Hany Soh (Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC) asked supplementary questions on the expansion of FamNex to other regions.

Mr Masagos said FamNex will be rolled out in areas with more young couples, children and families, and different community, polyclinic and hybrid models will be trialled to see what works in different areas.

For instance, FamNex@OTH is situated in a community space with no medical facilities available, while other FamNex sites are located in polyclinics with social support made available within.

“We are tapping on these pilot sites to test out different models of bringing together partners to offer co-located programmes and services. MOH will study which elements of these models are most effective and explore how they can be scaled to residents in other regions,” he said.

Mr Masagos said of the 48 initiatives laid out in the latest report from the interagency Child and Maternal Health and Well-being (CAMH) Taskforce, 28 have been rolled out and the remainder will be progressively implemented over the next two years.

Responding to Dr Wan Rizal’s question about the progress and evaluation of various initiatives, Mr Masagos said: “As the 28 initiatives have only been rolled out over the last two years, we will evaluate them from 2025 onwards, based on their effectiveness in achieving their intended outcomes and other dimensions such as participation rate.”

Mr Masagos said Project Home (Holistic Management & Enablement), a collaboration between SingHealth, KidStart and ComLink, has enrolled more than 100 families in the north-east region, while Heads-UPP (Health and Development Support in Preschool Partnerships) by Care Corner, NUH and PCF Sparkletots pre-schools has onboarded 147 children in the west.

Mr Masagos added that mental health support programmes for mothers at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) and National University Hospital (NUH) have helped more than 2,200 women, such as those at risk of developing postnatal depression.

“We want to make a Singapore made for families... We will do everything and anything to support our mothers, particularly in raising their children and having families,” said Mr Masagos.