Local CIP Projects

The Neighbourhood Health Service (NHS) is a local health screening service project involving Medicine and Nursing students of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS), Social Work students of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (NUS), and Medicine students of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (NTU). NHS aims to identify residents-in-need, especially the elderly and residents of lower socio-economic status living in rental blocks, and act as a bridge to reconnect them back to the healthcare system. In essence, NHS seeks to reduce the size of two main groups of residents:

1. Residents who suffer from illness but have not been diagnosed yet;
2.  ​Residents who have previously been diagnosed with an illness, but are not receiving medical treatment due to various barriers to healthcare (e.g. cost, mobility, personal reluctance).

In the long term, NHS also hopes to evolve into a replicable health service model that can be adopted by healthcare institutions nationwide.

NHS conducts free health screenings, both at a centralized location and door-to-door, to bring health services to residents' doorsteps. Subsequently, follow-up is conducted for residents with abnormal screening results to make sure that they are reconnected back to the healthcare system (i.e. actively seeking treatment for their conditions).

The inaugural NHS was held in January 2008, serving the residents of Taman Jurong Zone B. Since then, NHS has served 7 districts and more than 5000 residents, and increased the number of screening modalities to 16, from an initial 3.

NHG-LKC CommHealth assists the National Healthcare Group (NHG) in conducting the Central Regional Health and Social Assessment Programme (CRNA). Through this programme, NHG takes a proactive role in reaching out to the wider community, beyond the doors of the hospital. Our goal is to help as many people as possible stay in good health and thus avoid hospitalisations so that they can instead spend quality time with their families. We aim to achieve this by providing a helping hand in three different programmes.

 
Firstly, our volunteers will have an opportunity to help out with Community Health Screenings, where currently healthy residents are assessed for risk factors for chronic diseases, such as hypertension or diabetes. In addition, we are involved in Community Health Posts, where our volunteers will play a role in counseling and reaching out to residents to provide advice on healthy lifestyle habits and chronic disease prevention. Finally, we also contribute to the health education of residents by helping with diabetes prevention and weight-loss workshops, where residents, and even volunteers, can learn useful tips on staying healthy. 

​This academic year, we are also extending our volunteer activities to a newly-established door-to-door engagement programme for residents of lower-income neighbourhoods. A needs assessment consisting of medical, financial, social, and lifestyle factors will then be conduct to determine the appropriate follow-up intervention programmes. Through these avenues, we hope to work together to help keep those around us healthy and happy.

LKCares is a community health screening project jointly organized with Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and the National Health Group (NHG), in accordance with the “Screen for Life” Programme. Since its inauguration in 2017, LKCares has since conducted 5 screenings, with the latest held at Whampoa Community Club (CC) in September 2019.

Since its conception, LKCares has dedicated itself to raising awareness of common primary diseases, while striving to prevent the progression of diseases in the community via early detection and follow-up. To ensure timely follow-up upon detection, participants with newly detected abnormalities are linked up with local healthcare and social support systems.

For 2021, we will be embarking on new partnerships with Agency of Integrated Care (AIC) and Peacehaven Day Centre to promote greater ownership among identified seniors over management of their own chronic medical conditions through the building rapport via biweekly befriending sessions.

 Volunteers at LKCares have the opportunity to gain valuable first-hand experience in conducting the myriad of screening tests ranging from the Snellen and Amsler eye tests to the Even Briefer Assessment Scale for Depression (EBAS-DEP) questionnaire. Additionally, volunteers are involved in the door to door publicity event where they will be required to distribute flyers to the residents within the vicinity of the Community Club. Through biweekly befriending sessions, volunteers involved will have the opportunity to follow up with an assigned senior over a period of time, gaining insights into barriers to compliance with treatment and health-seeking behaviours.

Project RED is a partnership between Singapore Red Cross Community Resilience Department and LKC, distinct from NTU Red Cross Chapter. 

The aim of Project RED is to equip and certify medical students from LKC with Standard First Aid + AED skills for FREE in return for them serving a minimum of 24hrs in the medical-centric initiatives of the Singapore Red Cross Community Resilience Department.

The Project serves as a streamlined platform for volunteers to gain access to these medical initiatives of SRC, circumventing numerous processes General Volunteers have to undergo to get involved. It does so by liaising with Red Cross on behalf of the volunteers, following which volunteers can sign up for whichever initiative piques their interest in their own time, so long as they complete a 24hr service commitment within 2 years of obtaining the certification.

 Being distinct from the NTU Red Cross Chapter allows the Project to focus predominantly on the medical volunteering opportunities offered by Singapore Red Cross, while allowing there to be greater flexibility to allow for LKC’s academic schedule.

Project RED was founded on two distinct needs:

1. The need in Singapore Red Cross for a constant pool of trained volunteers to contribute to their medical initiatives, preferably volunteers with some medical background.

2. The need for first aid awareness or training amongst interested medical students, especially pre-clinical medical students, providing them with hands-on experience in treating and managing patients in a pre-hospital context- a far cry from the very sterile, clinical context taught in medical school and one which is far more applicable to their daily lives.

Initiatives which volunteers can expect to help in include Community First Aid (CFA), where volunteers assist in numerous events islandwide; First Aid on Wheels (FAoW), a routine coverage of East Coast Park (ECP), Sentosa, and Ubin. Singapore Red Cross has kindly allocated us two FAoW shifts per month for volunteers (especially first timers) to be introduced to the real-life provision of first aid in a safe and controlled environment under the supervision of more senior volunteers. Besides that, Project RED has been tasked to cover various Community First Aid events, namely those in NTU or in the western side of Singapore. Recently, the Project also has provided first aid coverage for the 2019 Let’s Take A Walk Walkathon, a 3 day-2 night event across Singapore.

 Dedicated volunteers can look forward to serving in more initiatives under Singapore Red Cross, with opportunities to serve as a Community Responder (which responds to panic button calls by elderly living alone) or Emergency Medical Assistant (which is a first aider on board an emergency ambulance).

Did you know that 14 units of blood are needed every hour in Singapore? Unfortunately, only 1.84% of our residents donate blood, even though saving 3 lives only takes 60 minutes of your time. In collaboration with Singapore Red Cross, LKC holds its very own blood donation drive in the Clinical Sciences Building. Our objectives include collecting blood for Health Sciences Authority’s Bloodbank for future medical use, as well as raising awareness on the importance and impact of blood donation to LKCMedicine students and staff. Last year, we met our goal of 50-70 blood units collected and we hope that we can have everyone's support again this year!

Silver Trident is a long-term home visitation initiative by students from the NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine), in collaboration with the National University Health System (NUHS), RSVP Singapore, and Southwest Community Development Council (CDC).

This initiative serves the elderly population in the Western region of Singapore who are under the NUHS CareHub programme. After a period of training, multidisciplinary teams are formed by healthcare students from different faculties, ranging from Medicine to Occupational Therapists to Nutrition, Health and Wellness, as well as senior volunteers from RSVP. Our volunteers conduct fortnightly home visits to these elderly residents who have been recently discharged from hospitals. The aims of the home visits are to identify the holistic healthcare needs of these elderly residents within the setting of their community and empower them to take control of their health through the formulation and execution of personalized care plans with guidance from healthcare professionals from NUH.

Vision:

To contribute towards creating a sustainable community system to meet the holistic healthcare needs of the elderly in Singapore.

 Mission:

To collaborate with students and senior volunteers to empower the elderly to manage their health holistically in the long term.

 Goals of Silver Trident:

• To empower the elderly to take ownership of their health
•  To raise awareness of the complex care needs of the geriatric population amongst healthcare students through exposure to community-based clinical work
• To promote inter-professional collegiality among healthcare students
•  To empower the senior volunteers to manage their health in the future by imparting them with basic clinical skills and increased awareness of the effects of ageing, and to foster a spirit of volunteerism in society

Constructing Care Collaboration is a joint initiative by students from NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine and Singapore Institute of Technology Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy. The project serves as an avenue for volunteers to learn about and appreciate the transient overseas communities while serving them in a medical setting, so as to improve the volunteers’ capability to care for the migrant workers in the future. Volunteers also have the opportunity to visit the dormitories of the migrant workers to have a better understanding of what their life in Singapore is like.

The volunteers step out of their comfort zones to interact and take histories from our migrant brothers at partner clinics while being guided by seniors in the process. The volunteers also help in streamlining the migrant workers’ consultation with the doctors by highlighting the patients’ concerns and worries. After the consultation, medical students would help advise the patients on medications while PT/OT and nursing students would provide the patients with targeted and specialized advice.

At the end of every session, the volunteers will discuss what they have learned about the social situation of migrant workers and how as medical professionals, we can help the migrant workers overcome some of the barriers in healthcare.

CCC strives to integrate both the medical and social facets of patient care, with a particular focus on providing care to our migrant brothers.

Pallipals is a mix of the words: Palliative and Pals!

 ​Pallipals is an LCIP that is involved in the field of palliative medicine and care, with the aim to:

• Improve the lives of palliative care patients in our capacity as medical students and fellow human beings
• Raise awareness about palliative care amongst the public and medical students of Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine

We mainly volunteer our time by befriending patients who are receiving palliative care in Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s (TTSH) Ward 83. We engage the patients in activities such as board games, arts and crafts, reading, and singing performances.

During some of the festive occasions (such as Mid-Autumn Festival, Lunar New Year, and Easter), we organize celebrations to involve the patients in the festivities and break the monotony of the wards. In the past, volunteers have put up decorations, bought traditional food for patients, and sang with them.

Pallipals has also ventured into organizing larger-scale awareness-raising events to promote understanding and knowledge of palliative care to the public and medical students of Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.

Dover Park Hospice (DPH) is a non-profit organization designed to meet the growing need for hospice care. Hospice care is a holistic approach to caring for patients going through the last stages of their lives.

It's aims:

• Meet the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of patients and their loved ones, so as to alleviate suffering and maximise quality of life.
• Better the living, comfort the dying, and support the grieving with compassion and dignity.​

Volunteers at DPH play an integral role in all aspects of hospice work, from patient care to social activities and even administrative support. Our student volunteers from LKCMedicine play a variety of roles, including befriending and keeping the patients company. The simple act of being there for the patients in their final days goes a long way and makes a great difference in their lives.

Project ANGEL@LKC was started as a collaboration between St. Andrew’s Autism Centre (SAAC) and LKCMedicine to benefit people with autism, specifically focused on adults with autism. ANGEL@LKC aims to promote autism awareness amongst LKC students, and to raise funds for the Day Activity Centre in SAAC. The project seeks to deepen understanding of autism among medical students, with the long-term goal of raising a generation of doctors who are better able to provide healthcare services for patients with autism, a condition which many have heard of but may not fully understand.

Since its conception in August 2016, ANGEL@LKC has been involved in several initiatives to promote autism awareness and fundraisings, such as the True Colors concert (2017) and Easter Carnival (2019), which were conducted on campus and at Toa Payoh Town Park respectively. ANGEL@LKC also collaborates with SAAC to create opportunities for LKC students to learn about autism first-hand, through visits to the Day Activity Centre.

In 2018, ANGEL@LKC expanded to begin working with the Down Syndrome Association (DSA) to organize visits to DSA for volunteers to experience interacting with people with Down Syndrome. In 2019, a new collaboration was formed with Mamre Oaks Day Activity Centre, with the inception of a medical workshop programme to familiarise adults with intellectual disabilities with simple medical procedures.

ANGEL@LKC continues to work together with SAAC, DSA, and Mamre Oaks to promote awareness and understanding of people with special needs among our future doctors, as well as to raise funds for the special needs community.

Every day, 6 Singaporeans are diagnosed with a blood disease. Most of them will die without a bone marrow transplant but there is only a 1 in 20 000 chance of finding a perfect bone marrow match. Unfortunately, there are also many misconceptions regarding bone marrow donations and this deprives many of these disease-stricken people of their only chance of a life-saving cure. We, at SGMarrow, aim to change this. In collaboration with the Bone Marrow Donor Programme, we have held drives around NTU and NUS, collecting more than 2000 swabs to add to the bone marrow donor registry. Join us today: be a hero, save a life!

Teddy Bear Hospital (TBH) is a fun and educational outreach project that aims to alleviate children's fear of hospitals by familiarising them with common medical treatments, with the help of our teddy doctors! TBH also aims to promote the importance of healthy lifestyles and raise general health awareness in schools in an enjoyable and engaging manner.

Each Teddy Bear Hospital session consists of 5 stations with a finale at the end:

• Meet Mr Bones (x-rays, fractures)
•  Help Teddy Breathe (asthma)
•  Painful Tummy (perform surgery on our Teddy)
•  Head To Toe (general hygiene and dental health)
•  Healthy Eating (introduce the healthy plate model)
•  Save Teddy (finale, a role-play scenario with Mr. Teddy)

As teddy doctors, volunteers will facilitate the teaching of the different stations. As the target age range is between 4 and 8 years old, volunteers can expect to have a fun time sharing basic medical knowledge with children in a very accessible and interactive manner. Volunteers will also learn to communicate with children of young age, which as they will find is no easy feat. Essentially, cute children, fun times, and smiles all around! Furthermore, besides learning how to interact with children, volunteers will also get the chance to mix with students from NUS YLLSoM!

A joint project between NUS YLLSoM and Duke-NUS conceptualized in 2009, Camp Simba is an annual camp for children with cancer-afflicted family members to enjoy their childhood and have fun, forge lasting friendships between participants, while providing them with a safe space to process their feelings. This year, LKC Med is coming onboard to co-organize this event.

Camp Simba was started to address the emotional needs of children whose relatives are afflicted with cancer. These children are often left to deal with the large changes their family faces on their own, and with their family members struggling to cope with their illnesses, they often miss out on the simple joys of childhood or adolescence. Camp Simba’s slogan is to “create a safe haven for all”. Other than a fun and enriching experience, we hope to impart values such as resilience and courage and build a community to enable participants to draw strength from each other. Ultimately, we hope to inspire and equip them with the skills to eventually organize the camp for future “Simba siblings”.

The highlight of Camp Simba is a 3D2N Camp conducted in June, followed by three reunion camps in March, September, and December. Reunion camps provide an opportunity for campers to meet up again and bond with their camp OGLs. Past Reunions have been held at Wild Wild Wet and Adventure Cove in the past. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a camp was unable to be conducted in 2020, however, we are currently planning for a camp which we hope can be carried out in person in June 2021. Do look out for our main committee and camp facilitator recruitment and we hope to have you on board!

MediSign is a new LCIP that works closely with Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf) to increase basic medical awareness and emergency preparedness in people with hearing disabilities. Unfortunately, due to language barriers and poor understanding of the needs of the Deaf Community, members of the Deaf Community often have poor accessibility to healthcare, and MediSign aims to tackle this through various initiatives.

Volunteers will first have the opportunity to undergo a certified Basic Medical Signs Course conducted by SADeaf, where they will learn Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) in a clinical context. There will be fun and exciting role plays and scenarios, such as taking history and counseling a patient in sign language!

 Following the course, volunteers will then serve as facilitators for healthcare workshops organized by MediSign. These workshops are led by medical professionals, with SADeaf providing an interpreter for the event. Volunteers will bridge the gap between the Deaf participants and speaker, such as through facilitating small group discussions and hands-on activities.

Through this LCIP, you can not only look forward to learning and applying sign language, but also support this very special community.