Asian Family Conference 2017 (Incorporating 3rd Asian Guardianship Conference)

The Asian Family Conference aims to bring together policy-makers, practitioners and academics to discuss issues relating to families in Asia. The theme for the inaugural conference this year is Ageing Families in Asia: Challenges and Opportunities. The issue of ageing families is particularly relevant for Singapore and other Asian countries, where populations are ageing rapidly. The conference will discuss emerging trends, policies and practices pertaining to changing family structures and ageing in Asian societies.

Alongside the Asian Family Conference, Singapore will be hosting the 3rd Asian Guardianship Conference – an annual event that brings together academics, policy-makers and practitioners from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, as well as Singapore, to share on best practices in policy, practice and research on guardianship issues.

The conference is by invitation only.

PROGRAMME

Concurrent Session 1

Concurrent Session 2

Concurrent Session 3

Keynote Speakers +

• Ms Anne Hollonds
  Director, Australian Institute of Family Studies, Australia “Challenges and Opportunities of Implementing Family Policies in Ageing Societies”

  Anne Hollonds is one of Australia’s leading voices on child and family wellbeing. She has over 30 years’ experience in policy and practice, including leadership of large organizations providing a wide range of social services, education and health programs for children, youth, families, and older people.
  As Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies, an independent statutory authority of the Australian Government, Anne is responsible for conducting research and providing independent advice on family wellbeing. The Institute conducts quantitative and qualitative research, and disseminates findings to policy-makers, service providers and the community, to increase understanding of factors affecting families and to promote the wellbeing of families.

• Dr Vivian Lou
  Director, Sau Po Centre on Ageing, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong “Financial and Employment Impact of Family Caregivers in Hong Kong”

  Dr Vivian Lou is the Director of Sau Po Centre on Ageing at The University of Hong Kong. She is also an Associate Professor at Department of Social Work & Social Administration. Her research interests focus on family gerontology, in particular family caregiving for frail older adults and grandchildren, intergenerational support, social adaptation and mental health of Chinese older adult. She also has a keen interest in practice research on building evidence-based models that contribute to the enhancement of psycho-spiritual well-being of Chinese older adults.

Moderators +

• Ms Ang Bee Lian
  Director of Social Welfare, Ministry of Social and Family Development, Singapore

  Ms Ang Bee Lian has many years of experience in policy making and operational services in the social sector. Trained as a social worker, she also has a Masters in Social Policy & Planning from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She served in various capacities in the current Ministry of Social and Family Development since her graduation. She is currently the Director of Social Welfare in Singapore. As Chief Executive Officer of the National Council of Social Service from 2007 - 2013, she was involved in developing policies and implementing programs to grow the social service sector in Singapore.

• A/P Angelique Chan
  Executive Director, Centre for Ageing Research and Education, &
  Associate Professor, Program in Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore

  Dr Angelique Chan holds joint appointments as Associate Professor in the Signature Program in Health Services & Systems Research, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and the Department of Sociology, NUS. She is the Executive Director of the Centre for Ageing Research & Education. Dr Chan has published widely on aging issues in leading international journals and book chapters. She has consulted for local Ministries and organisations, and also sits on various national committees related to ageing research and education. Internationally, she has consulted for the United Nations and the World Bank, and also collaborated with Japan and USA on caregiving, work and retirement, and disability transitions.

• Dr Colin Tan
  District Judge, Family Justice Courts, Singapore

  Dr Colin Tan is both a qualified doctor as well as a qualified lawyer. He studied medicine at the National University of Singapore and later studied law at University College London. He was appointed as a District Judge in the Family and Juvenile Justice Division of the Subordinate Courts in 2010 and currently serves as a District Judge in the Family Justice Courts where he presides over Mental Capacity Act and other family law cases.

• Mr Daniel Koh
  District Judge, Family Justice Courts, Singapore

   

• Mr Khoo Oon Soo
  Commissioner for Maintenance of Parents, Singapore

  Mr Khoo is the Commissioner for the Maintenance of Parents, a position he has held since May 2010. Prior to being appointed Commissioner, he was the Principal District Judge at the Family Court. Mr Khoo received LL.M. degrees (Masters of Laws) from National University of Singapore and Cambridge University, and has over forty years of legal experience. He is the author of Parent-Child Law in Singapore (Butterworth, 1984), and the co-editor of Practitioner’s Library, Family Law and Juvenile Court Practice (LexisNexis 2008). Mr Khoo was awarded the Long Service Medal in 1998 and the Public Administration Medal (Gold) in 2008.

• Prof Paulin Straughan
  Professor of Sociology (Practice) and Dean of Students, Singapore Management University, Singapore

  Professor Straughan’s research interests center around sociology of family and medical sociology. Her current research investigates environmental risk factors in childhood obesity. She is also the Principal Investigator of recently concluded project on Successful Ageing in Singapore, Seoul and Shanghai which involved multiple institutions and a multidisciplinary team. She also serves as Consultant on numerous projects commissioned by various government agencies. She has published in both sociology and medical journals. Her books include Marriage Dissolution in Singapore: Revisiting Family Values and Ideology in Marriage, and Ultra-Low Fertility in Pacific Asia: Trends, Causes and Policy Issue (with Gavin Jones and Angelique Chan).

• A/P Thang Leng Leng
  Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore

  Associate Professor Thang Leng Leng is a socio-cultural anthropologist who obtained her PhD from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has research interests on ageing, intergenerational approaches and relationships, gender and family, with a focus on Asia, especially Japan and Singapore. She publishes widely in her areas of expertise and is the author of “Generations in Touch: Linking the old and young in a Tokyo neighborhood”(Cornell University Press, 2001), the first ever ethnographic study of an age-integrated facility. Her co-edited books included “Ageing in Singapore: Service needs and the state” (co-authored with Peggy Teo, Kalyani Mehta and Angelique Chan, Routledge, 1996, 2012) and “Experiencing Grandparenthood: An Asian perspective” (co-editored with Kalyani Mehta, Springer, 2012). She is co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Intergenerational Relationships (Taylor and Francis, USA) and vice chair of the International Consortium for Intergenerational Programs. She also serves on the board/council of Fei Yue Family Service Centre (chair), Centre for Seniors, and Gerontological Society Singapore. Besides heading the Department of Japanese Studies, she is also Deputy Director at the Centre for Family and Population Research and an Honorary Fellow with the College of Alice and Peter Tan, National University of Singapore.

Speakers +

• A/P Angelique Chan
  Executive Director, Centre for Ageing Research and Education, &
  Associate Professor, Program in Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore “Intergenerational Transfers in Singapore: How Supportive are Families?”

  Dr Angelique Chan holds joint appointments as Associate Professor in the Signature Program in Health Services & Systems Research, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and the Department of Sociology, NUS. She is the Executive Director of the Centre for Ageing Research & Education. Dr Chan has published widely on aging issues in leading international journals and book chapters. She has consulted for local Ministries and organisations, and also sits on various national committees related to ageing research and education. Internationally, she has consulted for the United Nations and the World Bank, and also collaborated with Japan and USA on caregiving, work and retirement, and disability transitions.

• Ms Ang Bee Lian
  Director of Social Welfare, Ministry of Social and Family Development, Singapore

  Ms Ang Bee Lian has many years of experience in policy making and operational services in the social sector. Trained as a social worker, she also has a Masters in Social Policy & Planning from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She served in various capacities in the current Ministry of Social and Family Development since her graduation. She is currently the Director of Social Welfare in Singapore. As Chief Executive Officer of the National Council of Social Service from 2007 - 2013, she was involved in developing policies and implementing programs to grow the social service sector in Singapore.

• Mr Akihiko Shimizu
  Executive Director, Council of Social Welfare in Nishinomiya City, Japan “Person-centred Assistance in Nishinomiya”

   

• Mr Charles Chiu
  Chairperson, Hong Kong Guardianship Board, Hong Kong “Making it Work: Lessons to Learn from Challenging Guardianship Cases”

  Mr Charles CHIU Chung-yee was appointed the full-time Chairperson of Guardianship Board of Hong Kong SAR in February 2003. He has practiced law in Hong Kong since 1981. He is a panel arbitrator and mediator of HKIAC. Currently, he is the member of the governing boards of Haven of Hope Hospital and Haven of Hope Christian Service of Hong Kong. He has been a member of Hong Kong Hospital Authority’s sub-committees including Clinical Ethics Committee.

• Prof Cheolung Je
  Director, Korean Research Center for Guardianship and Trust, Korea “Legislative Work for Successful Implementation of the Adult Guardianship Law in Korea”

  Cheolung Je is law professor at Hanyang University, South Korea. He graduated from Seoul National University (1990), and got a PH.D degree of law at the same university (1995).Before 2016, he had, as the president of the Korean Institute for Guardianship Law and Policy, been working for the proper implementation of the new Adult Guardianship Act 2011, which came into force as from July 1st 2013.

  In the arena of adult guardianship and alternatives thereto, he has conducted lots of research, and has published many articles in academic journals especially focused on adult guardianship and the reformation of private and public law for the protection of adults with impairments to decision making ability since 2007, while he has been in charge of the Korean Research Centre for Guardianship and Trusts since 2016.

  He has also been engaging in the reformation work of laws relevant to the protection of mentally and intellectually disabled adults and adults with dementia. He submitted to the Korean Ministry of Justice the report on the Reformation of Korean legal incapacity system (2007). Between September 2013 and January 2015, he was in charge of the Guardianship Application Assistance Center for Adults with Developmental Disabilities, under the auspice of the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare. Furthermore, he has been in charge of guardianship application and guardianship services for persons with mental disabilities since 2017

  He is also in charge of the organization of the 5th World Congress on the Adult Guardianship, held in October 2018 in Seoul, as vice-president of Korean Adult Guardianship Association.

• Dr Colin Tan
  District Judge, Family Justice Courts, Singapore “Challenges and Opportunities in Dealing with Mental Incapacity Cases – The Singapore Experience”

  Dr Colin Tan is both a qualified doctor as well as a qualified lawyer. He studied medicine at the National University of Singapore and later studied law at University College London. He was appointed as a District Judge in the Family and Juvenile Justice Division of the Subordinate Courts in 2010 and currently serves as a District Judge in the Family Justice Courts where he presides over Mental Capacity Act and other family law cases.

• Ms Esther Tan
  General Manager, Special Needs Trust Company, Singapore “SNTC’s Pre-Planning cum Trust Service: Supporting Elderly Without Next-of-Kin”

   

• Dr Helen Ko
  Executive Director, Beyond Age, Singapore “Healing Strained Relationships in Ageing Families: Insights and Implications for Practice”

  Dr Helen Ko is Executive Director of Beyond Age, a training consultancy with deep expertise in ageing issues. She is concurrently a Senior Lecturer at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, teaching Master’s level courses in gerontological counselling and gerontology. She pioneered the development of several programmes for seniors in Singapore, including gerontological counselling, care management and day care services, as well as an evidence-based model for counselling older adults. She has published widely on ageing issues, in books and scientific journals. She also serves on the Boards of Council For Third Age, St Luke's Hospital and an international charity.

• Mr Hisashi Tanabe
  Director of Community Welfare Department, Iga City Council of Social Welfare, Japan "Recent Trend of Revisions to Adult Guardianship"

  Mr. Tanabe joined the Ueno City Social Welfare Council in 1994. He has been in charge of a dedicated staff of the welfare activity, a specialist in the welfare activity, a specialist in support project for independence of daily life (former community welfare rights advocacy project), a rights advocacy manager, a living support manager, and a deputy general manager of the community welfare section. He was engaged in support for adult guardianship, corporate guardianship and consultation related to rights advocacy support by the social welfare council at the Iga Area Welfare Guardianship Support Center established in August, 2006 (Nabari City and Iga City, Mie Prefecture).

• Prof Kalyani Mehta
  Head, Graduate Gerontology Programme, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore “Voices of Grandparents: An Asian Perspective”

  Professor Kalyani Mehta is Head of the Graduate Gerontology Programme at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). Her research interests are social policies for seniors and family caregivers, grandparenting issues and challenges, widowhood, retirement, impact of technology and the digital divide, spirituality and its influence on ageing experiences, and cultural patterns of ageing. She has published widely in international and regional journals. She also co-edited the book “Experiencing Grandparenthood: An Asian Perspective” (2012), which analyses grandparents and their challenges in 6 Asian countries.

• Mr Khoo Oon Soo
  Commissioner for Maintenance of Parents “Reflections on Intergenerational Ties in Singapore: CMP Case Studies”

  Mr Khoo is the Commissioner for the Maintenance of Parents, a position he has held since May 2010. Prior to being appointed Commissioner, he was the Principal District Judge at the Family Court. Mr Khoo received LL.M. degrees (Masters of Laws) from National University of Singapore and Cambridge University, and has over forty years of legal experience. He is the author of Parent-Child Law in Singapore (Butterworth, 1984), and the co-editor of Practitioner’s Library, Family Law and Juvenile Court Practice (LexisNexis 2008). Mr Khoo was awarded the Long Service Medal in 1998 and the Public Administration Medal (Gold) in 2008.

• Mr Kwon Oh Hyung
  Chief Director, Central Support Center for Children with Disabiities and Persons with Developmental Disabilities, Korea “Cases of Integration of the Persons with Developmental Disabilities into the Communities with the Assistance of Volunteer Public Guardians in Korea”

  Mr. Kwon graduated from the department of Social Welfare at Chung-Ang University in South Korea (B.A 1990, M.A 1996) and completed a PhD program in Social Welfare at University of Seoul in 2008. Later, he had served as a Secretary-General for the Autism Society of Korea for 5 years and had worked as a college professor and a senior researcher in the area of social welfare policy for years. Currently, he is a chief director at the Central Support Center for Children with Disabilities and Persons with Developmental Disabilities (BROSO) in South Korea.

  He has published books such as “The establishment of the integrated support system for children with disabilities (2009)” and “The developmental plan to foster professionals in the social welfare sector and schemes to activate it (2007)” A ministerial citation from the Ministry of Health and Welfare is awarded for his contribution to the lives of people with disabilities in 2003.

• Ms Lee Li-Ling
  Judge, Taipei District Court, Taiwan “The Guardianship and Involuntary Hospitalization in Taiwan”

  Judge Liling Lee was appointed to the bench of the Taipei District Court in 1996. Since 2006, she was appointed to be Family Court Judge till now. In 2009, she received a full stipend to study at Berkeley Law School in the US where she completed her LL.M. In 2013, she acquired Fulbright Scholarship for the doctorial program at Berkeley Law School where she received the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D.) in 2015.

  Judge Lee has been regularly invited to give lectures to family court judges, family investigators, judicial affairs officials, family mediators, attorneys, and law school students by Judges Academy, family courts, Taiwan Bar Association and law schools. Currently, she is also a member of the Family Law Draft-Making Committee of the Ministry of Justice, member of the Material Editors of the Legal Education of the Judges Academy, Supervisor and Convener of the International Affairs of the Association of Women Judges in Taiwan.

• Dr Leong Chan Hoong
  Head (Social Lab) & Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Policy Studies,
  National University of Singapore, Singapore “Living with Parents: Evolving Family Dynamics within Singapore Households”

  Dr Leong Chan-Hoong is the Head of the Social Lab and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), National University of Singapore (NUS). He graduated with a PhD in Psychology from the Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) and has an M.Sc. in Statistics from NUS. His research focuses on social resilience, immigration, and the management of cultural diversity in the workplace and community. He has served as Principal Investigator for various studies and projects commissioned by local agencies, and also been an editor and reviewer for international journals. He is presently a member of the National Integration Council Workgroup on the Community.

• Ms Paveena Seah
  Senior Research Analyst, Institute of Policy Studies,
  National University of Singapore, Singapore “Living with Parents: Evolving Family Dynamics within Singapore Households”

  Ms Paveena Seah is a Senior Research Analyst at the Social Lab, IPS, NUS. She graduated with honours in Sociology from NUS, and has an MSc in Ageing and Society from the Institute of Gerontology, King’s College London. She has been working on the Social Lab’s flagship Singapore Panel Study on Social Dynamics since it was launched in 2014. Her research interests are in population ageing and heritage conservation, with a special focus on how the residential environment and social relations shape the subjective well-being of older people.

• Prof Li-Xia
  Professor, Law School of East China University, China “The Challenges of China's New Adult Guardianship in the Implementation”

  Xia Li is a Professor at the East China University of Political Science and Law. At the same time, she is the Executive committee of International Society of Family Law,the Standing Director of the China`s Society of the Family Law,the Editor in Chief of the Elder Law.

  Prof. Li devotes herself to researching and teaching of family law and elder law. As a representative figure of China’s academic community. She is famous for her proliferate academic researches on Adult Guardianship Law.

  Professor Li has been recognized as the leader of the research direction of China’s Adult Guardianship Law. Her research achievements have been a significant motivating factor of the generation of Art.26 of Chinese Elder Law with effect from 2013, and have won the first prize in China's society family law, she has published nearly twenty books and over sixty academic articles.

• Mr Li Chenyang
  Notary, Notary Public Office of Shanghai, China “The Situation and Challenges of Adult Guardianship Notarization in China”

  Chenyang Li is a notary and the assistant director in Shanghai Putuo Notary office, engaged in notarization since 1993. Chenyang Li is both the member of Culture Propaganda Committee of China Notary Association and Profession Development Committee of Shanghai Notary Association. He is also the convener of Shanghai Youth Association Notary Salon and the sponsor of Shanghai public welfare notarization activities for elderly testament. His practice focuses on creditor's rights and risk prevention, adult guardianship, testamentary trust, heritage management.

• Dr Rachel Carson
  Research Fellow, Australian Institute of Family Studies, Australia “Towards a Better Understanding of Elder Abuse”

  Dr Rachel Carson is a socio-legal researcher with expertise in family law and qualitative research about family law disputes. As part of the Family Law and Family Violence team at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, she has worked on projects related to family violence and elder abuse. Her current research includes a study of the experiences of children and youth after the separation of their parents and the extent to which their needs are met by the existing family law system services, and a project investigating the extent of direct cross examination in family law matters involving alleged or substantiated family violence and the factual and legal context characterising these matters.

• Dr Rahul Malhotra
  Head of Research, Centre for Ageing Research and Education, &
  Assistant Professor, Program in Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore “Research on Family Caregivers of Older Singaporeans: Past, Present and Future”

  Dr Rahul Malhotra is Assistant Professor at the Program in Health Services and Systems Research and the Head of Research at the Centre for Ageing Research and Education at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore. A physician specializing in Community Medicine, and a public health researcher, Dr Malhotra’s research focuses on the vulnerability associated with ageing at the individual and the population level. He also maintains an interest in global health research, with a focus on health of older adults and their caregivers in Asian countries.

• Prof Stella Quah
  Adjunct Professor, Health Services & Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore “Beyond Grandparenting: Social Capital and the Dynamic Transformation of the Senior Generation”

  Professor Stella Quah (Ph.D) is Adjunct Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School. Her research publications are in the areas of medical sociology, public health, family sociology and social policy. Among her latest publications are: International Encyclopedia of Public Health (Editor-in-Chief, 2017, 2nd edition); “Partnership: the missing link in the process of de-institutionalization of mental health care”, International Journal of Health Services (2017); The Routledge Handbook of Families in Asia (editor and contributor, 2015); “Sociology and Psychology in Public Health”, in Detels, Gulliford, Karim and Tan, eds., Oxford Textbook of Public Health. 6th Ed (2015, pp. 695-708). For more information see http://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/content/quah-stella-r and http://www.stellarquah.com

• A/P Tai Yu-Zu
  Associate Professor, National Taipei University, Taiwan “The Balance of Autonomy and Care in Taiwan’s Adult Guardianship System”

   

• Prof Takashi Oka
  Professor, Department of Law, Faculty of Law of Gakushuin University, Japan “Problems of Voluntary Guardianship and Direction of their Reform”

   

• A/P Thang Leng Leng
  Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,
  National University Singapore, Singapore “In the Face of Vulnerabilities: Informal Caregivers of Dependent Elders from Lower-Income Households in Singapore”

  A/P Thang Leng Leng is a socio-cultural anthropologist who has numerous publications on ageing, intergenerational approaches and relationships, gender and family. Internationally, she is the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Intergenerational Relationships (Taylor and Francis, USA) and vice chair of the International Consortium for Intergenerational Programs. Locally, she also serves on the board/council of Fei Yue Family Service Centre (chair), Centre for Seniors, and Gerontological Society Singapore. She is also Deputy Director at the Centre for Family and Population Research and an Honorary Fellow with the College of Alice and Peter Tan, National University of Singapore.

• Mr Suen Johan
  PhD Candidate, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom “In the Face of Vulnerabilities: Informal Caregivers of Dependent Elders from Lower-Income Households in Singapore”

  Mr Suen Johan is currently a PhD candidate at the department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge, UK. His dissertation adopts a life-course perspective in understanding the survival strategies, employment experiences, and socio-familial circumstances of low-income older persons in Singapore. On the topic of ageing in Singapore, Johan has several forthcoming co-authored publications including, "Contextual challenges and the mosaic of support: Understanding the vulnerabilities of low-income informal caregivers of dependent elders in Singapore" (Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology) and "Growing old in Singapore: Workings of the many Helping Hands policy approach" (chapter in Ageing and Old-Age in Asia-Pacific).

Conference materials will be uploaded after the conference.

GENERAL ENQUIRIES

Secretariat of AFC 2017
Email : admin@afc2017.sg

Hotline: +65 8188 8140 (Operating Hours: Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 6pm)