“Are we OK with the price of not being OK?”: The mental health and well-being of Singaporeans (with former NMP Anthea Ong)

socialservice.sg presents: "Before the Ballot"

The links between mental health and well-being and Singapore’s general elections may not be immediately clear. Yet, in GE2020, during a pandemic election which also placed emphasis on how Singaporeans were doing psychologically, many electoral candidates and political parties campaigned on related platforms. With former nominated member of parliament Anthea Ong, we first asked her to assess the current state of mental health and well-being in Singapore. Then, we discuss how these issues may feature in the next general election, after examining recent parliamentary amendments which were made and passed in the Law Enforcement and Other Matters Bill.

We previously hosted Anthea on this podcast in 2020 and 2021:

• Mental health: Awareness, acceptance, and action (A conversation with NMP Anthea Ong)
• “Are we listening?”: Coalescing around downstream and upstream mental health action (Anthea Ong; COVID-19, one year on)
• #AreWeOkay and the proposal for a Mental Wellbeing and Sustainable Development Office in Singapore

The feature photos are by ⁠⁠Ng Shi Wen⁠⁠ (episode) and Kelli McClintock on Unsplash (cover).