Complacency is a common barrier to heart health. People tend to only pay heed when symptomatic, but relax their efforts when their condition seemingly normalises, says Geoffrey Ong. However, the importance of prevention and regular monitoring should not be undermined as heart conditions can be silent killers, warns the CEO of Singapore Heart Foundation (SHF).
Additionally, it is a misconception that only older adults are at risk for heart disease or heart attacks. Young adults, in particular those with risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or a history of smoking, are more likely to develop premature heart disease. In 2023, nearly one in three deaths in Singapore was due to heart disease or stroke.
SHF is currently the only local agency in Singapore dedicated to promoting heart health. It runs an array of services including BP Initiative @ Schools, which provides students with foundational knowledge about blood pressure and healthy lifestyle habits; the Heart Wellness Programme, which offers highly subsidised, community-based cardiac rehabilitation programmes for those recovering from or are at risk of cardiovascular disease; and a CPR and AED certification course to the public for a subsidised fee of $65.40.
The course helps grow our community first responders and is a crucial endeavour as some 80 percent of all sudden cardiac arrest cases occur in residential and public settings.
Although Ong spent a large part of his career in banking and finance, he is no stranger to social service. He served on the Board of Directors of the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS) for close to a decade and is now also the chairman of the charity.
But the devil is in the details and one of his biggest challenges at SHF has been in balancing strategic vision with day-to-day operational demands, especially when they involve programme execution, stakeholder requests, and resource constraints. Another has been in driving cultural change.
“Cultural change is one of the hardest things to implement because it’s not just about policies or systems, but also shifting mindsets and behaviours.”
Geoffrey Ong on moving the needle
To move things forward, he invested in training, introduced new communication norms, and set up feedback mechanisms. In addition, he modelled SHF after a modern Philanthropy 2.0 approach “built upon a sustainable framework as opposed to old-school chequebook philanthropy”. This empowers stakeholders to align their philanthropic activities with their strategic goals and purposes.
Because charity should not be restricted to only the ultra-rich, but rather requires collective action for more tenable outcomes, Ong reckons that technology-enabled giving is now a necessity: “This means that public giving should be made easy, safely, and transparently using technology. This is vastly different from solely depending on canvassing for donations, which is the modus operandi of many charities.”
For this reason, SHF has transitioned from canvassing to various online avenues of donation, including PayNow.
The 2022 National Nutrition Survey found that nine in 10 Singaporeans consume about double the recommended amount of sodium daily. As such, Ong strives to narrow the gap between knowledge and sustained action like health screenings, exercise, and dietary changes with urgency as an excessive intake of salt is a major contributor to hypertension and heart disease.
As it stands, chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease do not exist in isolation. Physical and emotional challenges are often compounded by financial strain, lifestyle disruptions, and employment difficulties, in addition to a cascade of social issues.
Ong shares Bill Gates’ sentiment that when health improves, life improves in every measure.
“I truly believe that with the right education, early intervention, community support, and accessible care, we can reduce both disability and death caused by cardiovascular disease and stroke in Singapore.”
Photography Mun Kong
Art direction Ed Harland
Grooming Keith Bryant Lee using Shu Uemera & Keune Hair Professional
Photography assistant Melvin Leong
