Frequently Asked Questions

If your loved one is in a hospital, you should speak to the Social Worker at the hospital about your loved one’s care options. In consultation with the hospital care team, they will assess your loved one’s suitability for nursing home service and make the referral to appropriate service(s).

If your loved one is at home, you can approach your nearest AIC Link for assistance. Click here for the AIC Link locations and contact details.

This depends on many factors, e.g whether the patient is medically fit to be discharged from the hospital, the availability of beds at your preferred nursing home, the availability of main spokesperson for the pre-admission meeting etc. You can check with the social worker in the hospital that is working on your loved one’s referral.

The actual bill size will depend on your mother’s medical condition and type of care needed. It will include bed charges, consumables (such as diapers, toiletries etc) and ancillary items (such as milk feeds). The average monthly bill size will range from $3,750 to $4,740, before subsidy.

St Joseph’s Home is a government funded nursing home and residents that are referred via the hospital or the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) will receive subsidises for the nursing home fees. The amount of subsidy will depend on your mother’s functional ability and the outcome of the national means test.

For more information about nursing home charges, please call +65 6268 0482 or email us at general@stjh.org.sg.

The sources of financial support for persons needing long term care¹ are:

• Means tested subsidies of up to 75% for nursing home care. Approach the social worker at the hospital or AIC for assistance applying for a subsidised nursing home.
• Medisave Care / CareShield Life / Eldershield Schemes for severely disabled persons.

If these sources of financial support are still not enough, you may speak to your social worker for other forms of financial assistance such as MediFund.

¹Long-term care is the personal and medical care needed if an individual develops disability due to age or adverse health conditions. It includes a range of services which individuals may choose depending on their care needs and support available, either at home or institutions like nursing homes. https://www.cpf.gov.sg/service/article/what-is-long-term-care

St Joseph’s Home accepts residents from all races and religions. However, we do not serve halal meals.

You can indicate your preferred nursing home to the hospital social worker or AIC staff that is helping with your loved one’s nursing home application. The bed availability for your loved one will depend on their health status and recommended service as assessed by the hospital social worker or AIC staff.

St Joseph’s Home can look into your loved one’s medical needs on site. He / She will still need to go to the specialist clinics for specialised treatment/ conditions (e.g eye check-ups)

Regular dental check-ups and cleaning are also available for residents. Other specialist procedures will need be done at the outpatient clinics. Family members will need to pay for these special procedures.

There is a hairdresser that visits the home once a month to trim the residents’ hair. However, you are free to bring your loved one out for a special haircut.

As storage space is limited, we advise that you prepare 5 sets of clothes for your loved one. You may change these from time to time. We have an in-house laundry service that will launder your loved one’s clothes and linen. The clothes are labelled so that we know who they belong to. Otherwise, you may also label the clothes on your own.

Yes, your mother can bring her radio and mobile devices.

For the privacy and security of the residents, CCTV cameras are only located along common corridors and entry ways.

Nursing Home

Visiting Hours are 10am – 12nn and 3pm – 7pm daily. There are no restrictions on the number of visitors and visits per day.

Hospice

Visiting hours are 10am – 9pm daily.  For the comfort of our residents in hospice, visitors are capped at 6 per day and only 2 visitors may be by the resident’s bedside at a time.

For enquiries on matters related to visits, please call +65 6268 0482 or email us at general@stjh.org.sg.

Yes, you may bring your pet with you during your visit. However, please confine your visit to the first floor of the Home.

Yes, you’re welcome to bring your loved one out for a day between 10:00am and 8:00pm. Our nurse and therapist will help check if your family member is ready for an outing and suggest the most suitable transport. Your social worker or care coordinator will be happy to assist you with the arrangements. For the comfort and safety of your loved one, overnight outings are not available, but our staff will guide you with the necessary arrangements for the daytime outing.

Yes, you may bring food for your loved one and eat with them.

Cooked food must be consumed within 4 hours of preparation. As your loved one may have food or dietary restrictions, please check with the nurse or refer to the tag on his / her wheelchair regarding the type of food is suitable for him / her. The nurses will also assist in preparing the drinks for your loved one.

Please remember to bring your own plates / bowls and forks / spoons etc.

You may arrange for food delivery for your loved one so long as you are present to receive the food when it is delivered to the Home. Please check with the nursing team on whether the food you are ordering is suitable for your loved one.

You can let your social worker or care coordinator know that you would like your mother to attend Mass and they can make the arrangements with our Pastoral Care team.