Mobility

One of my most embarrassing moments in my life happened a few years ago when I kept a 90+ year old wheel-chair bound lady out of the public toilet. But I’m sure you’ll forgive my Ugly-Singaporean moment if you read on for the rest of my story:

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In 2004 I was at one of the Universities in Michigan, USA, for a conference. On that Saturday afternoon, the conference had just ended for the day and I, the shopaholic Singaporean, was totally bored stiff. The tourist activities recommended for that university town was ‘hunting & fishing in the forests & lakes’.

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The campus was TOTALLY deserted, as I walked through it looking for some campus museum or library to visit. I stepped into one of the campus toilets to freshen up my make-up. I chose the handicapped cubicle at the end of Ladies Washroom, because 1) it was the most spacious   2)I’ve never seen a handicapped person using the handicapped cubicle in my whole life.

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I was really taking my own sweet time in that cubicle — after all, I had nothing to do, there was no one else around, and even if anyone needed the toilet, there were at least another 5 cubicles free.

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After about 20min in there, I heard someone knock on my handicapped-cubicle door. ‘Is everything all right in there??’ an old lady’s voice rang out with great concern. Now, in Singapore, the only old ladies who ever bang on your cubicle door are the toilet cleaners who insist on sticking to their toilet-cleaning schedule in the middle of your diarrhoea episode. Of course I assumed the same of Michigan. ‘Oh yes, thanks’ I replied, and took another 5 min to finish up.

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Then I opened my cubicle door. To my great horror, a 90+ frail old lady was sitting there in her wheelchair , all alone, starring at me. So yah, that was the day I totally ruined the reputation of all Asians.

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The nice thing is that this embarrassing moment would probably never happen to anyone in Singapore. Why? Because I think it is impossible for any wheelchair-bound person, let alone a 90-yr old, travel all by themselves all over Singapore. Except those miracle workers selling tissue paper & Singapore Sweep tickets.

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A family member underwent a knee surgery just last week for a torn ligament. Despite multiple protests from her — because she was young, a gym regular, and liked looking tough — I insisted on accompanying her at the hospital and taking her home. Even tho’ that meant 2 days from my very precious Annual Leave (because she was neither my young child nor elderly parent).  It was a good thing I did, because she was feeling nauseas and dizzy from the painkillers even tho’ she was eligible for discharge (staying at the hospital one extra day for nausea and dizziness is too expensive). However, to be discharged she needed to change elevators twice and  navigate the hospital maze to get to the cashiers. I had to do the payments and discharge admins for her. We wondered about those poor souls who had no family or friends to accompany them. We realised why we always saw vomit puddles at the lift lobby areas and corridors. 

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I put her in a wheelchair I had just bought. Now to get her to even consider letting me get the wheelchair, I had to tell her I was buying the wheelchair for my feeble grandmothers, and she could use it just temporarily. To my grandmothers of course, I had to tell them since we already have a wheelchair, they should just use it to get out more often or else the wheelchair would go to waste. You see, my grandmothers are no immobile, but they are not strong enough to walk for substantial durations. They’ve been home-bound for very long because they refuse to let me get a wheelchair. Isn’t it amazing how in Michigan a 90+yr old can wheel herself to a deserted university toilet and in Singapore, grandmothers would rather remain home-bound than let anyone buy them a wheelchair?

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Anyway, in the wheelchair we had to clear a huge obstacle course just to get to the next building. Seriously, I don’t think our Outward Bound Schools or NS training grounds need build obstacle courses at all. We should have all the participants in wheelchairs navigating around Orchard Rd. Or anywhere else.  Even hospital grounds like that one we were in. I wheeled her down the  wheelchair ramp, and saw another ramp on the opposite side of the road. However, there was the raised concrete road-divider smack in the middle. 20 meters away, there was a zebra-crossing. There was a ramp leading down to the zebra-crossing, but on the other side, there was the raised concrete curb with no ramp. We thought long and hard, choosing between getting over the divider & avoiding the never-ending stream of traffic, versus using the zebra-crossing and having to get on to the curb on the other side. Eventually we chose the zebra-crossing & she had to get off her wheelchair so that I could carry it up the curb. I wonder how our tissue-paper sellers manage such miraculous feats.

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Once we got into the other building, we were faced with a long flight of stairs. There was a wheel-chair lift, and all one had to do, was call on the intercom for the Security Guard to help you. After a 10min wait, the Security Guard came along and spent the next 10min trying to figure out how to use the wheelchair lift. Then he announced it was spoilt. To his credit, the Security Guard was very nice and kind and carried all her belongings AND her wheelchair up the flight of stairs while she slowly hobbled up on her broken knee and crutches.

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Now, I’m not relating these 2 incidents just to complain. I’m just wondering how much more Singapore as a society would benefit if our environment was a little more friendly towards 90+yr old wheelchair-bound frail ladies. In fact, it’s not just with the wheelchair-bound 90+yr olds. I know many friends who have to take leave whenever their perfectly mobile parents need to visit the hospital, simply because many of the signs are in English, and their parents read Chinese/Malay/Tamil/Others.  Plus hospitals can be frustratingly difficult to navigate — even for someone like me who works on the hospital compounds. I also know a few elderly relatives who don’t visit their doctor as often as advised, because it is simply too troublesome for them or their children. As a result, the management of their chronic conditions gets compromised & their condition worsens.

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The economic implications are huge. With an ageing population, more people would need regular check-ups at the hospital to detect and treat conditions early or to manage their conditions well. There’s a huge economic cost when a corresponding number of working adults have to take leave just to make sure their parents can get to the doctors. When elderly folks don’t comply with their doctors’ appointments, the cost of the compromise comes in the form of heftier medical bills when their health condition worsens. On a large scale, this burdens our entire society.

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There’s also a huge social cost to this. The mental stress and physical strain just getting around stresses relationships and bonds within families. Simply enforcing legislation to get children to care for their parents adds to the stress, if such environmental support is not improved.

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So I do hope that there are building designers & design regulators out there who are taking note & doing something. Perhaps NGOs could be set up  to campaign for greater mobility ease, very similar to our Restroom Association (http://www.toilet.org.sg/aboutus2.html)  which I think has been fairly successful in getting toilets to be cleaner? And if we don’t know where to start from, perhaps we could hire the 90+yr old from Michigan as a consultant. The next time she knocks on my cubicle door and goes ‘Is everything all right in there?’, I’ll reply ‘Erm, not really, and ma’am we could sure use your help!’

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