Located in western Singapore, NTUC Health's newest Day Centre for Seniors (Jurong Spring) is a sight to behold.

As one of NTUC Health’s largest senior daycare centres, the daycare centre can host a maximum capacity of 100 clients and looks nothing like a traditional nursing home. According to its introductory video, the front door opens to a large, brightly-lit communal area, replete with wooden ascents—think Scandinavian-esque chairs with muted pastel-hued cushions, tiled floors and other furnishings. There are no nursing carts, no dismal-looking corridors, and no dark-coloured furnishing. Instead, the walls have been painted a shade of cool turquoise with motivational quotes—the likes of Frank Llyod Wright, Mark Twain, and George Bernard Shaw—written in white on them.

A rehabilitation section comprising several customed exercising machines resides in a corner. While a miniature porch that offers some greenery to relax the eyes resides in another. Members of the rock-and-roll generations also get to relax in several of the beige sofa seats and immerse themselves in a casual conversation with one another in the daycare centre. Evoking a sense of nostalgia, an old-school storefront signage mimicking an old-school coffee shop hangs from the ceiling in front of the kitchen, where several old-school memorabilia sit atop shelves and cabinets. Interestingly, there is also a VR dining corner that provides seniors a better dining experience as they enjoy their meals with a view.

Most impressive is the expansive gaming corner, where a beer pong table, an air hockey table, an arcade street basketball machine, and a 10-pin bowling pin set are scattered around. For one of the NTUC Health’s Senior Day Care clients Mr Richard Phon Fook Choon, taking turns to play the arcade street basketball conjured up memories of his student days when he would head to the court to shoot with his friends. “It made me feel like I was a young boy again,” he said. “Once we started playing, we couldn’t stop.”

“Our vision is to evoke the feeling of being at home while away from home, such that our clients feel comfortable and enjoy their time at our centre,” says Mr Parry Zhang, Cluster Manager for Senior Day Care at NTUC Health. “We are constantly introducing new and innovative features to deliver better service to our clients.”

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By Sng Ler Jun