If you saw 80-year-old Phua Soh Khim in late 2007, you wouldn’t believe she is the same person of today. Several months after coming to the Silver Circle (Taman Jurong), this well-mannered woman started to have mood swings. She would be talkative at one point and later, withdrawn and quiet.

The Centre staff there spoke to her son during the annual meet-the-carer session and they discovered this problem existed also at home. The grandmother of seven would not talk to her son or his family, she would not change her clothes and undergarments after showering, and she would get up in the middle of the night to do chores in the house. Her family was at wits end on what to do and how to handle her.

Last year, her son, Lim Eng Soon, decided to bring his mother for a geriatric assessment for her behavioural changes in case it could be early dementia. Meanwhile, the Centre staff helped to educate her on her personal hygiene and helped her manage her behaviour while at the Centre. The geriatrician came back with a diagnosis that it was dementia. She was immediately placed on medication to help control her mood swings and her family had to start coping with her behaviour. They know that her behaviour is because of the condition rather than she wanting to make trouble for the family. 

Khim, who also has diabetes and hypertension which are currently under control, and walks with a quadstick, continues to stay active while she is at the Silver Circle, writing Mandarin words, playing mahjong, colouring, etc. Speaking in Hokkien, she said, “All my friends are here and if I were home, I would be lonely as my son works.” 

Though at times, she still has the occasional mood swing, the centre manager Anne Chong, commented, “Her health is much better than before. She doesn’t get too tired as she used to because she is involved in many activities.” She also said Khim’s diet at the Centre includes less carbohydrates and more vegetables to help her control her diabetes.

This all has bode well as her son has noticed the changes – “She has improved while she has been at the Silver Circle. She does not need to take medication for her diabetes any longer. The first month after being there, her diabetic level dropped from a high number to a good number, according to what her doctor told me. She has had this problem for such a long time. I think the care and food at the Silver Circle has contributed positively to this.”