Persons with Intellectual Disability in Singapore Today – An Overview

Abstract

Singapore has come a long way in enabling persons (people) with intellectual disability (ID) to be truly integrated into our community. In this presentation, we take a historical overview in the journey of care and integration from the time of the setting up of Singapore Children’s Society in 1952 to the first Enabling Masterplan (EMP1) for the period 2007-2011. We are now in the Third Enabling Masterplan (EMP3) for the period 2017-2021. To support persons with disabilities in acquiring relevant vocational and independent living skills and emerge stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Temasek Trust-CDC Lifelong Learning Enabling Fund was launched and made available for one year only (3 Dec 2021 to 31 Dec 2022). Family physicians being the medical practitioners in the frontline of medical care are touchpoints in accessibility to healthcare services and benefit schemes for this group of people. They are key stakeholders.