Evelyn Ng

Answer the following question: True or False - The elderly do things that don’t make sense.

If your answer is “True”, Ms Evelyn Ng would tell you that the reason the elderly may do things that don’t make sense is simply due to the way they were brought up. So, to help them, she would then educate them, especially about the new developments in society, and how things work now.

When she was a 16-year-old, she initially applied to be a volunteer at the SPCA. However, she was too young then, and was rejected. Undeterred, Ms Ng went online to explore more options, and stumbled upon a nursing home, and she successfully went on to be a volunteer there. It was no surprise then that she decided to study for the ITE NITEC in Community Care & Social Services, which further cemented her passion for helping the elderly. “I came across this introduction in the brochure for the NITEC course – ‘helping elderly and counselling’. These were what drew me into the course.” She is pursuing a WSQ Diploma in Social Service at the moment to deepen her competencies in social service.

Ms Evelyn’s typical day as a senior care associate from TOUCH Community Services (TOUCH Home Care) comprises home visits to the elderly, up to a daily maximum of 8 visits. Depending on their needs, she may assist them in their showers, or engage in physiotherapy maintenance and so on. Over time, she builds a strong rapport with her clients, and becomes close to them. In addition, through these lively interactions, she is now equipped with an impressive vocabulary of dialects and different languages, to facilitate communication with the elderly. She fondly remembers one of them who became more like a father figure to her: “I had a client who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) after a car accident. His leg movement was hampered, and then it spread to other parts of his body, rendering him bed-bound. He lived with his two sons, one of them with intellectual disability. Initially I was to assist him in showering. After a period of time, we bonded together, and I visited them regularly, often assisting them to cover miscellaneous tasks like paying the bills, or shopping for groceries. Eventually his heart started failing, and he was admitted into ICU. I constantly visited him, and we talked a lot, even up to the last stage of his life.”

“I’m an extrovert, and I talk a lot, and I have a short fuse. I also tend to offer my opinions right from the get-go. My teachers taught me to understand people more and not have assumptions. They guide me along, and even now they are the ones advising me if I encounter any problems.”

She also keeps in close contact with 2 of her former lecturers, Ms Linda Foong and Mr Godffrey Lau, whom she credits her inspiration and success. “I’m an extrovert, and I talk a lot, and I have a short fuse. I also tend to offer my opinions right from the get-go. My teachers taught me to understand people more and not have assumptions. They guide me along, and even now they are the ones advising me if I encounter any problems.”

After graduation, Ms Ng aims to continue her studies at UniSIM, inching closer towards the motivating finale to be a registered social worker to carry on her passion of life: helping the elderly.