SOME years ago, a friend from Britain asked if I could do her the favour of visiting her mother who was in a nursing home in Singapore.
I agreed and she gave me a photo album to take to her mother, who was diagnosed with dementia.
When I visited, I showed her mother the photos. She said that she could not see.
I asked her to remove her spectacles and was shocked to see that the lenses were filthy. I washed them and she was able to see after that.
I was shocked that this happened in quite a prestigious nursing home.
Furthermore, the rooms there were simple, with just a bed and no cupboard.
The feeling I had in the home was that this was just a place for people waiting to die.
The quality of nursing homes is very important.
In some foreign countries, nursing homes have everything a housing estate has - a library, exercise room, games room, and so on.
More good-quality nursing homes with pleasant environments and subsidised rates need to be built here ("Make it easier to care for Singapore's aged" by Mr Leong Kok Seng; last Friday).
Let us help the aged enjoy a better and comfortable life during their last years.
Shamim Moledina (Ms)
