Deputy Director, Healthy Ageing Programmes

Singapore is ageing rapidly. Despite living longer, Singaporeans are spending more years in poor health. Other than chronic diseases, frailty, dementia, falls and other ageing-related conditions will continue to add to the healthcare and care management needs in later life.

To help seniors lead healthier and longer lives, HPB aims to improve and maintain their functional ability through healthy lifestyle practices and social connectedness. This means helping seniors to improve and maintain their physical and cognitive function and staying engaged so that they can remain independent for longer.

Singapore is ageing rapidly. Despite living longer, Singaporeans are spending more years in poor health. Other than chronic diseases, frailty, dementia, falls and other ageing-related conditions will continue to add to the healthcare and care management needs in later life.

To help seniors lead healthier and longer lives, HPB aims to improve and maintain their functional ability through healthy lifestyle practices and social connectedness. This means helping seniors to improve and maintain their physical and cognitive function and staying engaged so that they can remain independent for longer.

‘Live Well, Age Well’ is a national programme that comprises a suite of active ageing initiatives spanning physical, mental and social wellness. These include regular group exercises, focusing on strength, balance and flexibility to help seniors meet physical activity recommendations and targeted programmes on frailty prevention, interactive health workshops, digital and financial literacy courses.

With transformation to the healthcare and the aged care system brought about by national directives such as Healthier SG and Age Well SG, HPB will need to foster closer collaborations with other parts of the healthcare system including General Practitioners (GPs), Active Ageing Centres (AACs) and Regional Health Systems (RHSes) to encourage seniors to participate in active ageing initiatives, adopt and sustain healthy habits on their own and stay healthy and active.

As Deputy Director (DD) of Healthy Ageing Programmes, you will chart HPB’s strategies and plans for healthy ageing, targeting seniors today and seniors to be, ensure alignment with MOH and other stakeholders and lead a team to develop, implement, scale and evaluate programmes and initiatives to improve seniors’ health.

Some of the key responsibilities include:

- Drive HPB’s frailty strategy and shape HPB’s role as a key player in frailty prevention, early identification, and management of pre-frail seniors
- Identify and lead efforts to plug gaps in the preventive health space to empower seniors to age well. This includes working with technical experts to translate clinical interventions to scalable community programmes
- Develop and implement digital initiatives on Healthy 365 app and/or other platforms to empower seniors to support seniors to be self-directed in adopting and sustaining healthy behaviours
- Drive collaborations with internal and external stakeholders
- Mentor and coach direct and indirect reports to help them develop professionally and hone leadership and functional competiencies

What we are looking for:

- Strong strategic sensemaking capabilities and ability to translate policy thinking into implementation
- Ability to exercise influence on thought processes at various levels including inter-agency platforms, senior management discussions, staff level, and steer discussions and/or negotiations for effective outcomes
- Strong business acumen and implementation capabilities
- Is resilient, adaptable and able to thrive in a fast-paced and dynamic environment and able to lead the team to achieve the same
- A leader that fosters trust and collaboration in the team, with strong demonstration of good work ethics

**Requirements**:

- A University degree and/or Postgraduate qualifications in any health-related or science disciplines. Gerontology, Public Health, Public Health Administration, Psychology are preferred.
- Minimum 10 years of relevant working experience, with a proven track record of delivery of results for large scale and complex projects. Prior work experience in ageing related sectors or portfolios are preferred.