Daisy Vaithilingam (1925 - 6 August 2014) was a Singaporean

social worker Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...

. Vaithilingam was involved with setting up foster care and children's programs for the

intellectually disabled Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability in the United Kingdom and formerly mental retardation,Rosa's Law, Pub. L. 111-256124 Stat. 2643(2010). is a generalized neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by signific ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. She was one of the founders of the organization that later became known as

MINDS Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS) is a voluntary welfare organisation based in Singapore, that provides services for the intellectually disabled. MINDS was founded in 1962, and remains one of the largest charities in ...

Biography

Vaithilingam was born in

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...

in 1925 and was the youngest of four children in her family. Her mother was a nurse and her stepfather a doctor and, like them, she also wanted to help others from a young age. Vaithilingam attended

Methodist Girls' School Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's br ...

. She then graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

(NUS) in 1950. She started work at the Singapore General Hospital in 1952. In 1955, Vaithilingam became the chief of Medical Social Workers (or Senior Almoner), which put her in charge of all hospitals' social workers in the country. Shortly after her appointment, she created a foster care program at

Woodbridge Hospital The Institute of Mental Health (IMH), formerly known as Woodbridge Hospital, is a psychiatric hospital in Hougang, Singapore. IMH is the only tertiary hospital in Singapore that specialises in psychiatry. It has over 50 wards and 2010 beds f ...

. Because many

(ID) children were abandoned at hospitals, Vaithilingam created the Singapore Association for Retarded Children (SARC, which later became MINDS) in 1962. She also created a project to help parents of children with ID financially. Vaithilingam also had to deal with cultural attitudes about hospitals and medical treatment since many people believed such treatment was only for the dying. Vaithilingam had a key role in creating the

Singapore Association of Social Workers Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

in 1971. In the 1980s, she was involved in setting up the Medical Social Work department of the National University Hospital. She also lectured at NUS on social work for fifteen years. Vaithilingam was the chair on the first Committee of the Care of the Aged. Vaithilingam died after being diagnosed with gum

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

in 2014. She was inducted into the

Singapore Women's Hall of Fame The Singapore Women's Hall of Fame is a virtual hall of fame that honors and documents the lives of historically significant women in Singapore. The hall is the creation of the Singapore Council of Women's Organisations (SCWO), and grew out of an ea ...

also in 2014.

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* 1925 births 2014 deaths Singaporean social workers National University of Singapore alumni Methodist Girls' High School, Singapore alumni People from Penang People from Singapore {{Authority control