NTU undergraduates launch these starter kits to help families talk about advance care planning.

 

To help adults initiate Advance Care Planning (ACP) conversations with their parents, a team of four undergraduates from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, created ACP conversation starter kits. Each kit features a tumbling tower game, conversation cards and ACP educational resources to be distributed to the public from February.

Started in December, the Living Wishes campaign, supported by the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC), the Ang Chin Moh Foundation and the National Youth Council’s Young ChangeMakers Grant, aims to increase ACP discussions between adults aged 35 to 59 and their parents. ACP is an ongoing process of planning for one’s future health and personal care preferences.

In a Living Wishes’ survey among 105 Singapore residents aged 35 to 59, the team found that 17 percent of respondents did not discuss their parents’ ACP preferences with them as they did not know how to begin the conversation. With this kit, Living Wishes hopes to ease families into having ACP conversations where they can find out the unspoken care wishes of their loved ones before the end-of-life.

On February 26 and 27 2022, the team will hold ACP activity sessions at Ghim Moh Gardens RC and Tampines Regional Library respectively. Adults can try out the kit with one of their parents during the session and bring one home for free.

Tan Kwang Cheak, CEO at AIC, said: “Discussing ACP with our family when we are still healthy is important, as it can give our loved ones peace of mind and help them make informed decisions in times of medical crises.

“We commend groups like the Living Wishes team who understand the importance of planning ahead, and are developing resources like the conversation starter kits. These resources will certainly help families to initiate and carry out such difficult but necessary conversations with their loved ones at an early stage. We believe that resources like these as well as AIC’s ACP workbook will serve as useful tools in helping more people to proactively manage the needs of their loved ones.”

After using the conversation starter kit with her mother, 37-year-old Jo Wong, 37, said: “The questions on the conversation cards helped facilitate the conversation despite the challenging topic and we got to find out a little bit more about each other’s wishes.

“If something unfortunate happens, we are going to be caught up in the situation and those stressful times do not help us make good decisions. Having played this game to guide us through our ACP preferences, I realise how important it is to have this conversation early on, when we are all clear to think about and plan the best for everyone.”

From February 18 and 19, the team will also hold an event titled Mail Your Wishes at Ulu Pandan Community Centre and Tampines Regional Library respectively. Members of the public can visit the booths to register for the ACP activity session and write a postcard to invite their parents to have an ACP conversation with them. They may also stand a chance to win a free Conversation Starter Kit by registering for giveaways at the event or on the Living Wishes Facebook page. More information about the campaign can be found at livingwishesSG.com.