Sociology Intersectionality of Aging

Effectiveness of Support Groups for Older Caregivers in Singapore

Support groups—both face-to-face and online—offer essential assistance for older caregivers in Singapore; nonetheless, their creation strongly relies on the social locale of the caregiver, such as gender, social class, and ethnicity.

According to the Singapore Management University (SMU) Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA), there are about seven adults between 48 and 79 years who are caregivers, which suggests that they do not earn any payment, and nearly half of them are full-time workers (SMU, 2025). These caregivers, either at work, are chronically ill and are actively involved with the caregiving operations, thus the need to have the emotional and information support systems in place. Similarly, in the duke-NUS Medical School, a study entitled TraCE has discovered that more depressive symptoms and lower employment levels are reported by working alone caregivers, and it is possible to conclude that caregiving stresses are closely interconnected with socioeconomic and social factors (Duke-NUS Medical School, 2024).

Face-to-face support groups are particularly appropriate in the case of a collectivist society like Singapore, where one highly regards social interaction and identification with a group. One such organisation is the Caregiver Support Groups (CSGs) of Dementia Singapore that provide emotional support as well as tips on caregiving and interaction with a culturally sensitive approach in English, Mandarin, and Malay (Dementia Singapore, n.d.). Such activities help older caregivers, especially women, to show and cross through experiences that constitute social support and overcome social isolation. The trust and inclusion are further enhanced for minority caregivers, such as Malays or Indians, since they are familiar with their own culture. However, it depends on the socioeconomic classes: the caregiver under low income or workload cannot regularly receive the time, transportation, and the possibility to sit at a face-to-face session, and thus the potential benefits (SMU, 2025).

Online or hybrid support groups also allow making the service more approachable to individuals having limited mobility or those who have a tight schedule regarding the caregiving process. The researchers of Geriatric Education and Research Institute (GERI) found that the community health specialists agree that the caregivers need one-stop digital platforms that have an information-seeking and peer-supporting functional aspect (Lim et al., 2023). The online communities are adaptable, nonidentifiable, and can obtain information at any time, and this is a good thing, as male caregivers would be shy to seek face-to-face help due to social stigma.

Social location is significant to participation and benefit.

• Gender: The female gender is the head of caregiving; however, they do not have enough time due to the availability of household and caregiving duties. Male carers are comforted with emotional support more; however, it is also probable that they can be drawn to purposeful and skill-based groups instead of emotional sharing circles (SMU, 2025).
• Social status: Boxes. Economic stress can serve as a constraint to the presence of meetings in real life or tech-savvy accessibility. Such obstacles can be reduced using organised transport, which is subsidised and offers movies free of charge.
• Ethnicity and language: Singapore is a diverse setting that should be touched on differently. Malay caregivers, like the one, are likely to find power in faith and local communities, but Indian caregivers tend to perceive the caregiver work as a spiritual or karmic structure. The support groups can therefore be made more prolific through the incorporation of cultural and religious sensitivities (Dementia Singapore, n.d.).

In conclusion, the support groups may be efficient tools for older caregivers in Singapore if they are not ill-crafted or haphazardly woven to introduce intersectionality into the picture. The issues of gender, class, and ethnicity are hugely influential on the people who come to partake, the nature of assistance to be received, as well as the extent of the aid to be accepted. Otherwise, these programs will work towards the deepening of the same inequalities that it is meant to alleviate.