SINGAPORE: When the “circuit breaker” measures were announced on Apr 3, Cinddie Tay told her son he could not visit the nearby minimart to buy his snacks any more.

“He didn’t have tantrum meltdowns the way you may imagine — more like relentless nagging and begging,” said the 42-year-old.

Her 10-year-old with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is normally used to a full routine of tuition, swimming, home counselling and art therapy. He now faced weeks of having to stay at home with limited activity options.

Ace initially “binged on Netflix and YouTube videos”, but the prolonged screen time “worsened his already serious attention issues”. He grew increasingly distracted during conversation and could not maintain eye contact.

So his parents came up with an idea to help him “calm down and focus”.

They rented a car from BlueSG, packed Ace into it, and for 30 minutes each day now, they drive around their Sengkang estate and Punggol to “look at scenery”.

“Letting him see that no kids are out on the streets and that stores are shut reduces his anger and frustration when we tell him no going out,” said Tay.

We also want to show him that the playgrounds and public seats are taped off, so he knows we’re not lying to him when we say that places are temporarily closed.

Ace is not the only child who has had his familiar, structured routine overturned.

While the circuit-breaker period — now extended until June 1 — and home-based learning are challenging for many parents, those with children with special needs grapple with unique worries.

These include the loss of routines vital to many such children, and therapy sessions being put on hold, which could mean developmental setbacks. These have challenged parents and some education providers to invent creative ways to address the children’s needs.

WHEN ROUTINES ARE DISRUPTED

Deeana Mohamed’s sons, seven-year-old Ryan and 11-year-old Rifqi, who have low-functioning autism, usually spend their weekdays in special education schools and student care, from 7am to 7pm. After dinner, their home transforms into a “play haven”.

And their weekends entail running around and playing outside.

For them, adjusting to a new routine takes longer than it does for a typical child. “They’ll whine, complain and avoid. They get very restless when I try to get them to do their work,” Deeana said.

“My kids see me as their mum who brings them comfort, food and lodging, whereas they see their teacher as an educator, and firmness means business.”

Like many children with special needs, her sons also benefit from having a trained therapist to help the teacher instil daily living skills, such as how to wash and store their plates after eating.

“Teachers and therapists have time to wait for the kids to follow their instructions,” she added.

But sometimes I don’t have the time at home. So I’ll end up putting away their plates or pulling up their pants for them after they go to the toilet.

Julie McMahon’s six-year-old non-verbal autistic son, Jack, was attending speech therapy and occupational therapy as part of his school curriculum at Kids First. He also had weekly swimming lessons and occupational therapy outside school.

Familiar with learning from teachers and therapists in a specific setting, he does not understand that “the same activities can be taught by a parent” as is the case now.

“Generally, his speech therapy is meant to help him functionally use the iPad to ask for what he wants. But when a parent tries to do this with him, he’ll use the iPad to play games instead,” said McMahon, 45.

Before the circuit breaker, she and her husband made Jack’s life easier by developing strict routines on routine boards so he could keep calm and know what is likely to happen each day.

For instance, the daily schedules are labelled with events such as “breakfast”, “shower”, “dress for school”, “bus to school”, “therapy”, “bus home from school” and “swimming lesson”.

But these routines that they “spent a long time fostering” for their son are now “out the window”.

NO MORE OUTDOOR PLAY?

In addition to the lack of structure, many of the parents CNA Insider spoke to have tried to keep their children at home since wearing a mask outdoors became compulsory. Their children do not take to wearing a mask easily.

Whenever Jack’s mother tries to put a mask on him, he pulls it off and cries.

He already hates the feel of anything on his arms, such as a watch or identification bracelet, so a mask over his nose and mouth “is just not something he’ll tolerate”.

“I feel lonely that I can’t take him for a walk to the nearby shop,” said McMahon. “Otherwise, it would be one of the few times I can take him out of the house.”

Unable to go out in public, Jack recently “climbed a neighbour’s fence” and over a railing “onto a roof” to his parents’ horror. The incident left his mother no choice but to force him stay indoors for now.

Deeana has also stopped taking her sons running in the park or grocery shopping for the same reason.

After 15 minutes of wearing a mask, Ryan removes it and will not put it on again, despite his mother’s pleas. Rifqi does not even comply because he “doesn’t like things on his face”.

But Afiqah Liyana continues to allow her non-verbal autistic daughter, Daaniyah, to play outside, although the five-year-old’s daily playtime has been reduced to twice a week.

“It’s not possible to avoid (outdoor play) entirely. She needs the sensory stimulation, which is different from playing indoors,” said the 30-year-old mother, who tries her best to get her daughter to wear a mask.

To make up for the lack of outdoor time, Daaniyah now climbs on tables indoors or practises “stimming” — self-stimulating behaviour involving flapping her arms, clapping or rocking her body.

Leaving the house is more important for those with special needs, who tend to be either oversensitive or desensitised to the physical environment. The right amount of exposure is necessary to “correct” this sensory “imbalance”.

“Each child needs to exercise each of their seven senses: Touch, smell, taste, sight, hearing, proprioception (awareness of the body’s position and movement) and vestibular (sense of balance),” said Mark Lim, co-founder of inclusive games store Sensational Play.

For example, running on the beach would be an ideal activity — but the beaches are now closed.

Children whose sensory needs are not met would “feel unfulfilled and not be able to carry out higher-order skills, such as reading and learning”, he said.

Being cooped up makes them extra irritated, which mentally and emotionally affects themselves and their parents.

That is why parents like 43-year-old Aaron Hamilton continued outdoor activities for his children at the start of the circuit breaker.

He took his sons, aged two and three, outdoors at least twice daily to run along the pavement in front of their HDB block or to let his elder son, who has global developmental delay, cycle around the void deck.

But since restrictions were tightened, they have stopped going outdoors — his sons “won’t wear masks at all”.

INDOOR INNOVATIONS

The Hamiltons have now resorted to indoor activities, like setting up a tent, “playing with dinosaurs, trains and rockets”, “announcing rocket launches in French” and caring for the turtle and fish they bought at the wet market.

“My older son likes to pretend he’s on the MRT,” added Hamilton.

“He spends time running back and forth, looking at the wall, calling out the stations and reciting other announcements, like ‘please mind the platform gap’ and ‘doors are closing’. He’s memorised the East-West line.”

For her part, Deeana has found ways to make do with staying inside their one-room flat.

Her children dance to K-pop MTV, play with balls and bowl with their toys. She also gets them to bounce on the bed or their gym ball to expend their energy.

Rifqi, her 11-year-old, gets over excited when his senses are overstimulated. But playing with a ball is “quite relaxing” because it “diverts” him from “tapping the floor heavily” or clapping his hands.

Turning her home into a “home preschool” is how Christina Purnama, 35, helps her children to adapt to the changed circumstances. Her six-year-old has mild autism, while her three-year-old has epilepsy and developmental delays.

For three hours a day in “class”, her children call her “Ms Christina”. She gives them name tags and also wears spectacles as a prop to make home-based learning “more believable”.

To switch it up, she adds chores and sensory play to their daily routine.

“Of course I want the ‘fancy’ sensory toys, like coloured rice and slime, but I start with the easy ones that I have: Dry pasta, water, cereals, cotton balls and small Styrofoam balls. They’re less messy and equally fun,” she said.

For example, her children enjoy pretending the Styrofoam balls are snow when they play with their Disney’s Frozen toys. They also like to immerse their Duplo ocean animal toys in water.

Apart from home inventions, communities like Superhero Me provide a range of interactive and inclusive activities for children with special needs and their parents across Facebook Live, Instagram Live and Zoom.

“On Instagram Live, we get children and youth with special needs to speak about how they’ve been coping,” said Superhero Me co-founder Jean Loo, 35.

“This allows ‘regular’ people who haven’t interacted with those with special needs to observe and speak with them.”

Before each Zoom workshop, Superhero Me sends an activity pack, which includes a visual schedule and slides. Its 30-minute workshops are open to all, but the storytelling, dance and music activities have been adapted for children with special needs.

With the extension of the circuit breaker, Superhero Me hopes to branch out into art workshops, and fitness and mindfulness exercises to start the day.

It also plans to launch Zoom self-care sessions, facilitated by social workers, therapists or parent-leaders, to check in with parents.

To turn the unique circumstances into learning opportunities, parents can teach their children the impact of COVID-19 through Superhero Me’s COVID-19 educational resource package.

“There’s a huge impact on special needs kids because routine brings security. The circuit breaker inspired us to see how we could maintain that relationship with the kids,” said Loo.

WHEN THERAPY IS INTERRUPTED

But there are longer-term worries that the circuit breaker might lead to regression in the children’s behaviour.

Tan Hsinghui, for example, feels that her “layman” efforts are falling short. She has two sons: 13-year-old Aedan is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, while six-year-old Linus has developmental and speech delays.

“For kids like Linus, it takes months of therapy to get one correct behaviour in place,” said the 44-year-old part-time tutor. “A one-week break can easily undo everything when reinforcement isn’t adequate and timely and supported by the right people.”

Linus attends a full-day early intervention programme at Imagine If in place of preschool. There, he learns to make requests appropriately, which his mother cannot enforce in the same way at home.

When she tries, he cries — and his grandparents must comfort him to make him stop.

“In the therapist’s office, he’d recognise the environment, so he won’t misbehave. For a therapist, the only focus is the kid. But at home, my son knows that someone would come to ‘rescue’ him,” she said.

“When we want to build up the habit again, they’ll lapse into that ‘comfort zone’. We try so hard only to go back to square one.”

While she monitors Linus’ speech at home, she knows only whether he makes sense, but not how to analyse his speech using a professional framework or what questions to ask to help him improve.

“For Aedan, home-based learning hasn’t effectively replaced what he usually undergoes at APSN Tanglin School. The type of education he has needs a very personal touch. It can’t be substituted with multiple-choice tasks,” she added.

In school, he did hands-on vocational training, housekeeping and self-care, which required teacher-student interaction. His curriculum now is limited to what can be taught onscreen, like reading comprehension and numeracy.

Tan’s added focus on her sons, however, has resulted in her 15-year-old daughter, who does not have special needs, feeling more neglected than usual.

“Parents might have to spend more time with their special needs children for home-based learning compared to their typically developing peers or siblings,” advised Nurul Ain, a senior speech therapist at THK Therapy Services.

The attention these children need could be as straightforward as parents placing their hand on their child’s hand for an activity, or demonstrating jaw exercises to teach their child how to grip a spoon with his or her mouth.

Around 80 per cent of children with special needs require face-to-face therapy rather than engagement through a computer screen, said The Growing Academy’s principal therapist Yang Ling.

“If a task is challenging for the child, it takes a professional therapist to know what to do before a meltdown occurs. The therapist will break down the task into simpler steps to interest the child in trying again,” she explained.

Without consistency in learning, she believes regression might occur, to the detriment of the child’s development — and the parent’s pocket. “They might be less willing to follow parents’ and teachers’ instructions,” she said.

“There’ll also be an increase in tantrums because they’re not getting what they want. Before the circuit breaker, they might have learnt how to write or count, but they could easily forget these skills without practice.”

THERAPY TIPS, PARENTAL PRIORITIES

If parents are willing to get involved, then teletherapy can be a success in helping these children.

For some of its charges aged five to six, The Growing Academy delivered a box of materials containing toys, puzzles and worksheets to help them focus throughout the hour-long therapy session.

“This group requires parents to sit with them and assist their work. For example, during a tracing task, we’d need their parents to … hold their child’s hand to trace. Parents need to cooperate to ensure that teletherapy works,” said Yang.

Therapists have also given parents tips on what they can do to maintain what their children have achieved.

Purnama’s three-year-old daughter, who has gross motor delay and low muscle tone owing to seizures, used to attend physiotherapy. During this circuit breaker, the family’s balcony and living room has been transformed into daily obstacle courses.

“We do home activities suggested by her physiotherapist, using a stepper, gym ball, mattress, small stools, clothespin — anything we have at home,” said the mother.

She has also learnt to redefine what is important, that is, letting her children have fun rather than achieving goals.

“I used to be ambitious, and hence anxious. But I’ve now accepted that my special needs children have their own developmental timelines,” she said.

“I’ll attempt to work on the school’s worksheet, but if (my children) tell me they want to do something else, then I’d let them switch to story time or art for a while.”

Importantly, she has learnt to prioritise her own mental well-being. Her home atmosphere “drastically changed” when “Mummy was no longer screaming or anxious all day”.

“Seriously, parents of special needs children are vulnerable and need to be restored before they can help their children,” she advised.

SINGAPORE: We are in the second week of the Circuit Breaker period in Singapore.

We have been banished from the outside and ordered to go inside. Our lives, which had been marked by so much movement has suddenly been brought to an abrupt standstill. Our offices and streets have never been emptier. Our homes have never been more occupied.

Some of us may be surprised at how much we are struggling with being isolated at home. Some of us may also be surprised by the number of people who are challenging fate (and the authorities) by wandering outside.

Why is it so hard for us to stay at home?

For many of us, our hearts have not known how to be at home for a long time. This isolation time gives us time and space to reflect and rethink that for ourselves.

While I was under Quarantine Orders, I had much time alone to reflect on how to gain the most meaning out of isolation during this extraordinary time.

I offer four simple things we can do to help ourselves come back home again.

PAUSE TO REFLECT AND ACCEPT

First, allow yourself time and space to just pause and notice what’s really going on – to you and around you.

Our addiction to busyness and being outside can desensitise us to the multiple realities happening within our own selves as well as our homes.

READ: Commentary: Putting in 50 hours while WFH, it’s a struggle to draw the line between work and home

You might have gone through more upheaval than you realised these past few weeks. You might have been more short-tempered, withdrawn, depressed and anxious than before. Notice and accept it. Consider that you might not have realised how much you have lost in these few weeks that meant so much to you and how much you wish to have them back.

In a Harvard Business Review interview, grief expert David Kessler named the discomfort many of us are feeling right now as “anticipatory grief” over an unprecedented loss of safety and certainty at the micro and macro level.

He encouraged us to name, accept and feel our losses as grief. Because only when we acknowledge it, then can we begin the healing and empowering process of getting through to the other side.

We grieve only for things that we love. Give yourself permission to dwell quietly and notice with quiet compassion all our thoughts and emotions – especially the ugly ones. Even for those things, grieve so you can get through it and make a new choice for yourself.

It’s a global crisis. It’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to realise some things are not okay.

CREATE A ROUTINE WITH RITUALS

Second, as you grieve, design a routine around a range of rituals that you need to find sanity, stability and agency again and again.

READ: Commentary: COVID-19 has stripped work to bare bones – was all that excess needed anyway?

In crisis, events will keep happening to us, forcing us to adjust. Over time, this increases our sense of helplessness and anxiety as we feel the locus of control moves from us to our environment. That is why one of the most repeated pieces of advice given on how to survive – even thrive – in isolation is to establish a daily routine.

Claudia W Allen, Director of the Family Stress Clinic and the director of behavioural science at the University of Virginia, explains that routine is part an evidence-based treatment for depression called “behavioural activation”.

She advised: “Be proactive and lay out an intentional structure for your day … If you’re not working, create a schedule … Write it down.”

Create an intentional routine that empowers you.

An empowering routine keeps your focus on the things that bring you meaning, strength and satisfaction. You learn to focus on doing what is within your control. That helps you focus less on what is beyond your control.

Balance your routine with a range of simple practices of who you most want and need to be in this crisis. Carve out a time for work and for play. A time for exercise and for stillness. A time to talk and to listen. A time to be alone and to be together.

Most of all, don’t make your routine about pursuing perfection. It’s for practising purpose and intention.

EMPATHISE WITH THE TRAGEDY OF OTHERS

Third, acknowledge and empathise with the human tragedies happening around you. You’ll notice it’s easier to do this if you practice acknowledging and accepting your own private losses. 

You may know or even live with an emergency or essential worker going with very little sleep and unimaginable fears. 

Or a public servant planning for unthinkable scenarios, working under intense scrutiny. Or an employee who is newly jobless and facing a devastating drop in income. Or an employer challenged to pivot or shutter their business.

They need you to notice and hold space for their pain too.

READ: Commentary: COVID-19 – as offices close, hackers work overtime

LISTEN: How many stars will you give Singapore’s F&B industry this COVID-19 season?

If you are one of the “luckier ones” where you and your whole family has the financial heft, job security and large home that affords you peace of mind, the potential risk you face is that this crisis may still be an intellectual curiosity rather than an emotional experience for you.

You may be privileged to emerge from the crisis unscathed but you must not leave it unchanged. That would be a terrible waste for yourself as a human being and for your community as well.

Psychologists and community engagement experts Mark Brennan, Dana Winters and Pat Dolan recently wrote, when it comes to the coronavirus, each one of us in a first respondent. 

“In times of emergency, providing empathy, kindness and compassion to our fellow citizens is the single most important factor in surviving the initial stages of disaster, limiting suffering, protecting the vulnerable, and quickly recovering in the aftermath of the crisis.”

Many people are quietly navigating a stack of intersecting tragedies. We can all take time to ask how friends, family and strangers are doing and truly listen.

Acknowledge and grieve with them for their losses. Honour their attempts to keep moving forward with dignity and determination.

ACT WITH URGENCY

Fourth, we must move and act with urgency for the pain-points, purposes and people we most care about.

READ: Commentary: Why lifting COVID-19 restrictions require countries to cross three hurdles

But we cannot move forward on this crucial stage if we are still stuck in denial of our realities, confused about our priorities and hypercritical in our relationships.

The stakes are too high. Remember, even if we do leave isolation 30 days later, there is no “normal” to go back to.

We will be stepping into a different world from the one before COVID-19. Borders may stay closed. Money may be tighter. Jobs may be fewer. The way we work, live and play will never be the same.

This is our generation’s World War. If you look at the speed at which COVID-19 is devastating every country, you will see that there actually isn’t much time for excessive grumbling, complaining or sniping at each other.

If we were truly in the middle of a war, priorities would be starkly clear. Should we spend time and energy complaining about our child’s PSLE prospects or sitting down to explain to him about what’s going on, who’s hurting and what really matters now?

Your child should study for his PSLE – it is what’s within his control. But you help him study with a different spirit when you help him also see how the world is changing, how businesses are changing or even just how his parents’ jobs and family budget are changing too.

You also want to tell your child that COVID-19 is not just damaging human lives, it is also forcing out the best in us and among us.

Some are ripping up plans overnight to help thousands of us keep jobs. Some are rallying us to save lives, families, businesses and industries. Some are rousing us to take better care of the invisible and forgotten.

Our social, emotional, psychological and spiritual reserves as a people will be even more crucial in our fight against COVID-19 than our financial reserves as a nation.

There has never been a more crucial time for us to each reflect on our pains, realign our priorities and rediscover how to relate with our people – friends, family, team members, communities, citizens, leaders.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

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Kuik Shiao-Yin is Co-Founding Director of The Thought Collective. She served as a two-time Nominated Member of Parliament in Singapore.

SINGAPORE: Somewhere within a sprawling hospital complex, a troop of personnel are hard at work. 

Gloves, goggles, masks. They have different roles.

There’s Mr Chakshu Malhotra, a fresh face just over two months into the job. There’s Mr Issac Asirvatham, a seasoned hand with over two decades of experience.

They transport swab samples, clean the wards, escort the patients, change the laundry. 

Porters. Housekeepers. Security officers. Linen services. 

They are the ones you see but don’t always hear much about.

‘MY ROLE IS TO MAKE THE PLACE SAFE’

As night turns into day, housekeeper UM Pushpa Kumara begins his shift at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID). He is miles away from his home in Sri Lanka, far from his wife and his three-year-old daughter.

But he has assured them that he will be fine.

“They told me to be safe. But I already told them, we have proper training and wear PPE (personal protective equipment). I video call them every day … so they are not so worried about that,” he said. 

READ: ‘The hardest thing I’ve been through’: Hallucinations, fever, pneumonia – but finally victory for this COVID-19 patient

As part of his role, Mr Kumara has to don the full PPE – this includes an N95 mask, goggles, a shower cap, gloves and a plastic gown. And this gives him the assurance that he can do his job well.

“I clean the rooms, the toilet, the ward area and the corridor area,” explained Mr Kumara, who is employed by ISS Facility Services. “When the patients are discharged, we help to provide thorough cleaning (so that the ward is ready).

“When there are more patients and more discharges, we have to clean the wards as soon as possible for the next patient,” he said. “We have extra workload but we have to manage it.”

On some days there can be between 15 to 20 patients being discharged from the NCID wards, meaning Mr Kumara is being constantly kept on his toes. He has an hour-long lunch break, but this can be cut short at times.

“It’s true but that’s nothing to worry to about – we have to do our job,” he explained simply. “I am happy to help sick patients.”

There’s also the “high-touch areas” that need wiping down several times a day – these include countertops as well as the staff pantry.

“It’s mostly used by doctors and nurses,” Mr Kumara explained. “My role is to make the place safe for everybody and I help clean everywhere.”

The role potentially puts Mr Kumara in close proximity with COVID-19 patients, but he isn’t fazed. “I’m very confident in what I do,” he told CNA. “When the place is clean and tidy, then I am happy.

“Everybody who works in the hospital is a frontliner. We are helping each other and we are frontliners. I believe that I also should do my part as part of the team.”

‘IF WE DON’T SUPPLY LINEN, PATIENTS WOULD BE NAKED’

Mr Issac Asirvatham manages a team of 22. Combined, they handle the needs of a whopping 1800 beds – 1500 in TTSH and 300 at NCID.

“Bedsheets, blankets, towels, pyjamas for patients, curtains, anything to do with linen in the ward is all under us,” explained Mr Asirvatham, who oversees linen operations. “I make sure the schedule is properly drawn up, all the linen is supplied to the required wards. 

“We outsource to two laundry companies and we have to make sure that they wash according to our infection control standards. It’s part of my job to look into these things.”

With more beds filled at the hospital due to the COVID-19 outbreak, there is more demand for linen, explained Mr Asirvatham. The hospital is also working with its outsourced laundry service partners to ensure that the turnover of laundry is done within 24 rather than 48 hours.

“I now work 12 to 14 hour shifts, depending on the day,” he said. “The usual was about nine hours … I want to make sure that everything is properly done, nothing is missed out, before I leave.”

Mr Asirvatham and his team do not need to enter the wards to collect linen. This is a duty is done by the housekeepers, and the linen is then sent down in a chute system in laundry bags. Members of Mr Asirvatham’s team are stationed at the basement and will load these bags onto lorries.

READ: ‘We didn’t know there was a virus inside of us’: A young couple’s fight against COVID-19

When the clean laundry is sent back to the hospital, another team sorts it out, before making use of an automated trolley to send linen back to a dedicated laundry stall. When the trolley reaches the stall, the nurses then remove the linen and bring it to the ward.

Working in a similar role during the 2003 SARS outbreak, Mr Asirvatham said that things have changed at the hospital since then.

“During the SARS time, we didn’t have the NCID building, only the main building here,” he said. “The SARS outbreak was short-term – six, seven months. This one is still unknown. So that is a challenge.”

To prevent cross-contamination when handling the dirty linen, which could potentially be from COVID-19 patients, members of the team wear t-shirts and medical scrub pants rather than usual uniforms.

They also don a mask, apron, gloves when performing this task. 

“At the beginning there was concern, but I slowly taught them that we’d done this during SARS before … We can manage,” said Mr Asirvatham. “We are very important. If we don’t supply linen, patients would be naked!”

‘IT’S JUST PART OF MY JOB’

Mr Chakshu Malhotra’s role sees him stationed at the NCID screening centre.  

He helps collect swab samples from the screening centre and bring these samples to the laboratory. He also helps to wheel COVID-19 patients to their wards.

“Before I go into the screening centre, I have to wear (full) PPE,” he explained. “We have to remove the PPE once we come out to send the specimens (to the laboratory) … If the patient is confirmed (to have COVID-19), we also wear full PPE when sending them to the wards.”

And having only joined the hospital in February, he knows nothing other than this new normal. 

“To be very honest, it was very uncomfortable (to wear the PPE) at the beginning,” he added. “When we are wearing the N95 mask, it’s very hard to breathe. We have to take a break after every two hours to relax … Now it’s fine, but in the beginning, it was hard for me.”

And in the last few weeks, work has become increasingly busy for Mr Malhotra even as more patients are being admitted.

“(At first) it was worrying that I am working in a ‘high-risk’ area,” he explained. “But … our colleagues like doctors and nurses, they are also working here to help patients. So it will be fine … That’s what motivates me to keep working.”

While the job can be tiring at times, Mr Malhotra said he has got used to its routines and demands.

“I am very proud to work here to help people who are facing this problem (of COVID-19),” he added. “Sometimes it feels like (being a) hero, but it’s just part of my job.”

‘WE ARE SUPPORTED BY THE PUBLIC’

When it comes to security operations, Mr Jason Tan runs the show at TTSH and NCID.

Mr Tan’s duties include conducting PPE training for security officers, as well as updating officers on routes for COVID-19 patient transfers within the hospital.

There are a team of 18 officers under his charge, as well as a number of outsourced officers.

“Our duties started to change in February when Singapore raised the level DORSCON (Disease Outbreak Response System Condition) Orange. We did a lot of ‘locking down’ because our hospital is an open concept so people can come from anywhere and at any time,” he said. 

READ: The Big Read: The untold sacrifices by frontline healthcare workers as they soldier on against COVID-19

“So, once we turned DORSCON Orange, we locked down a lot of the entrances … At the beginning we had to do a lot of barricades and signages to ask people to use the main entrance, and make sure that people who came to our hospital were being screened.”

But as the COVID-19 outbreak escalated, the number of patient transfer duties has increased drastically, said Mr Tan.

Currently, the hospital performs about 150 COVID-19 patient transfer duties per day – this includes escorting them to ambulances where they are sent to Community Isolation Facilities, as well as transfers within the hospital.

Officers have to put on full PPE when they carry out these tasks, said Mr Tan. Two officers usually accompany a porter and a nurse when patients are transported within the hospital.

“Our duty is to clear the way so that the patients don’t get into contact with our staff or the public,” he explained. “Normally we plan (transfer routes) together with the infectious control or the different departments and I communicate this with officers on the ground performing a transfer.

“We have to inform people before patients pass by. Sometimes it’s necessary that we do some blockage or put up signages to inform people that patient transfers are in process.”

The amount of hours spent on shift has also increased, up to 12 a day, said Mr Tan. The security officers also now work on weekends.

But he believes that his officers remain motivated, with the support they receive from members of the public particularly helpful.

“Currently, everybody is tired. But we are supported by the public – they give us gifts of appreciation, they thank us and support us,” he explained. 

“Some support us with food, so our people are very happy that they are appreciated in these ways,” he added. “So this is what gives them the morale to continue with their jobs.”

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