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All 98 train stations run by SMRT will be certified as dementia Go-To Points by the end of this year.
This means that all the train stations on the North-South, East-West, Circle, and Thomson-East Coast lines will have this dementia-friendly initiative by year-end.
A person with dementia might get lost in public or become unable to remember their way home. Members of the public can bring such a person to a dementia Go-To Point in a train station where staff will assist to reunite them with their caregiver.
This is what a dementia Go-To Point looks like:
Dementia Go-To Point at Paya Lebar MRT station. Courtesy of SMRT.
According to SMRT, more than 3,000 of its staff have been trained to assist people living with dementia. This training was conducted with the support of the Agency for Integrated Care and Dementia Singapore.
The train operator is also rolling out "Kindness Seats" which serve two purposes. First, the seats are wrapped in brightly coloured decals to make them more visible for people living with dementia. Second, the seats feature messages encouraging commuters to show kindness to those who need help.
By June 2022, 45 SMRT train stations will sport these dementia-friendly "Kindness Seats".
Kindess Seat. Image courtesy of SMRT.
These initiatives are the result of a collaboration between SMRT and the Agency for Integrated Care to make public transport more inclusive for seniors and the differently-abled.
Past initiatives that came out of this collaboration include the implementation of yellow strips on the edges of staircases for better visibility to prevent falls, contrasting lift buttons, and non-reflective system maps.
Top image courtesy of SMRT.
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