Holistic elderly care: The future is now (Amended)

THE world is growing old. More people are ageing, ageing lonely and ageing with declining mental and physical abilities. Longevity has become like a slow-burning fuse for governments, with the potential to blow up budgets, pressurise healthcare systems and tear apart families.

Society appears unprepared to deal with this dynamic. Yet, combined with declining birth rates, it will only accelerate in the years to come. One quarter of Japan's population is already over 65 while in Australia, people older than 65 will outnumber those younger than 14 by 2030.

Singapore shares these problems. Life expectancy at birth here has reached 82.6 years in 2014 -- a 7.3-year increase from 1990. By 2030, citizens older than 65 will have more than doubled from the curren…