As Singapore ramps up psychiatric nursing home capacity, focus shifts to social care

SINGAPORE – Singapore is increasing its long-term mental health services capacity with the opening of a new psychiatric nursing home in May, a psychiatric rehabilitation home in July, and a second nursing home slated for 2029.

This expansion is accompanied by a gradual shift towards providing residents with more choices and activities to foster recovery, preserve their dignity and reduce social stigma, experts said.

Vanguard Care Home (Hougang), a psychiatric nursing home repurposed from the former Bright Vision Community Hospital, began operations on May 4.

Vanguard Healthcare, which manages it, said it is taking in residents at the 257-bed home for frail seniors with stable psychiatric conditions.

The facility is co-located with Vanguard Compass Home (Hougang), which is set to open on July 6. This 48-bed psychiatric rehabilitation home is designed to help individuals aged 21 to 60 with stable conditions in their recovery and community reintegration.

St Andrew’s Mission Hospital (SAMH) will open another psychiatric nursing home in 2029.

Managed by St Andrew’s Nursing Home (SANH), the 377-bed project will be next to SANH’s existing psychiatric nursing home in the Buangkok Green Medical Park, which also houses the Institute of Mental Health.

These homes are part of a broader effort here to improve mental healthcare in a rapidly ageing society. They were announced under the National Mental Health and Well-being Strategy launched in 2023 to meet a growing demand for psychiatric step-down care. 

Singapore currently has 10 nursing homes that offer psychiatric beds. They provide long-term care for individuals with chronic, severe mental health conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorders.

Capacity is expected to reach about 1,800 psychiatric beds by the end of 2026, said a Ministry of Health (MOH) spokesperson. 

Additionally, the three psychiatric rehabilitation homes here offer a total of 377 beds to support individuals with their recovery, help them build essential life skills and reintegrate into the community.

The high demand for specialised psychiatric care is underscored by the situation at SANH, which manages about a third of Singapore’s psychiatric nursing home beds.

Its 300-bed Buangkok home is constantly at 100 per cent occupancy, while its Taman Jurong and Aljunied facilities, which have 144 and 112 beds for psychiatric residents respectively, typically operate at 97 to 99 per cent occupancy.

Daniel Lee, the cluster CEO of SANH, said this high occupancy reflects a shifting social landscape of smaller family units and more single seniors. This signals that its facilities must move beyond providing entirely clinical care to connecting residents with community-based activities to improve their well-being and help them foster meaningful connections.

The residents at the Buangkok home are aged 40 to 90, with the majority aged 65 to 74. Many are there because their psychiatric conditions alienated them from family, or because their previous caregivers have died, Lee said.

At the upcoming SANH facility in Buangkok Green, plans include putting in a community cafe run by staff and residents, in collaboration with community partners, said Lee.

The space will be designed to provide opportunities for next-of-kin and the wider public to connect meaningfully with the residents, he said.

Additionally, there will be a mini-mart and barbershop that provide residents with opportunities to participate in micro-job roles and community engagement activities.

At Vanguard Heathcare’s new psychiatric nursing home and rehab home, residents live in a safe, home-like environment, with a structured care support system that promotes dignity and a sense of purpose, said CEO Chan Wei Ling.

The facilities help individuals in their mental health recovery, with different levels of support at different stages of their care needs, she said.

At SANH (Buangkok), executive director Kelvin Ng said the home was retrofitted in late 2025 to add an outdoor pavilionwith karaoke facilities and an outdoor garden with a compound for two silkie chickens that have helped to improve the interaction among the residents.

SANH had also earlier sought feedback from residents regarding certain services, which led to the home hiring its own chefs instead of relying on catered food.

In late 2025, three residents obtained food hygiene certification, Ng said.

One of them, Alvin Teo Say Siong, 59, who has lived in the home since it opened in late 2013, is employed at an on-campus cafe. Besides schizophrenia, he also has other health conditions, including cataract and ankylosing spondylitis, a painful inflammatory arthritis that affects the spine.

It is not his first outside job since living at the home, as he had worked for four years at home-grown western food chain Astons Specialities before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The other two are waiting for job opportunities, including Poh Lian Heng, 62, who used to do clerical work and has some experience in the food and beverage sector.

After being admitted to the Institute of Mental Health for delusional disorder and depressed mood, he was transferred to SANH (Buangkok) eight years ago. “I got used to the life here. It’s very meaningful – everybody can understand me, and there are a lot of activities to attend.”

He found the weekly sessions led by a peer support specialist particularly helpful. “He told us not to be so sad… not to be disappointed with life,” said Poh, who previously spent about 15 years caring full-time for his late mother, who lived with a memory loss condition. 

“A lot of our psychiatric home residents are physically able. They tend to be very healthy and stable if you keep them behaviourally engaged,” said Lee.

“In our Taman Jurong and Buangkok homes, we allow them to take up jobs as laundry assistants, as mini-mart assistants, and even cafe assistants so that they can gain the purpose and the dignity of their lives living here.” 

Lee said a September 2025 visit to the renowned Hogeweyk dementia village in the Netherlands had inspired the SANH team to integrate fresh concepts into their seven nursing homes.

“From them, we learnt that we are really working in the residents’ home; they are not living in our office,” said Lee. 

“So, we need to change the way we think, and see what the residents want… rather than when do I want them to eat, when do I want them to shower.”

The team plans to keep the doors to the ground-floor wards in Buangkok unlocked so that residents can freely walk to the outdoor areas, he said.

Fung John Chye, an associate professor who is co-director of the Centre for Environment and Ageing Well (ENgAGE) at the National University of Singapore, said most care service providers here and overseas are practising person-centred care, prioritising residents’ needs over the strict adherence to institutional imperatives, such as operational efficacy. 

“It requires a holistic transformation of long-term care, encompassing elements such as improvements in care service delivery, the design of physical environments, social care initiatives and strategies to reduce caregiver stress.” 

He said this is especially crucial for psychiatric nursing homes, as Singapore faces an ageing demographic and an expected rise in mental health conditions and dementia cases.

Fung said these homes should feature varied spatial environments because sensory perception is often a trigger of negative behaviours, while well-designed spaces can help soothe agitated residents.

Spaces should cater to various scales of usage, from a personal quiet space to small group gatherings and larger group activities.

Concerns regarding space efficiency often result in social areas being poorly integrated or omitted entirely from nursing home designs. However, Prof Fung said it benefits residents to have the freedom to use a space for self-initiated activities, such as listening to music or reading.