Madam Wong: I fell down yesterday. Fell down yesterday?

Care recipient: Madam Wong
Disease：Osteoporosis due to old age, prone to falling.

Started receiving TCM home-based treatment in July 2020

I only prescribed her medicine for one week and she recovered. Because we were afraid that her wounds would become inflamed, so we gave her some Five Ingredient Decoction. Are you still feeling any pain? No more.

My brothers, sisters, and TCM practitioners, follow up with me to check on my physical condition

TIMA's TCM doctor, Chow Khai Shui: Tzu Chi TCM Home Care Services has helped a lot of patients of various backgrounds. Most of them are 50 to 60 years old, which are the middle-aged and elderly people. Of course, when they reached this age, their bodies are weaker and more sickly, and many are having mobility issues.

Tzu Chi TCM Home Care Services was launched in September 2013 and has been running for 10 years now. The programme is run by a team of TCM practitioner volunteers who provide TCM treatments to care recipients with mobility issues.

TIMA's TCM doctor, Chow Khai Shui : If you are in pain, we will prescribe some medicine for you tomorrow to mend your bones.

TIMA's TCM doctor, Chow Khai Shui: For example, Madam Wong Kiat Hong, whom we're seeing now, used to fall down a lot. At one point she was also frequently hospitalised every few weeks or a month. She slowly gets better after taking my Chinese medicine, and you can see that she is now smiling very happily!

Madam Wong suffers weakness on all her limbs and lost the ability to talk and manage her daily life two years ago

TIMA's TCM doctor, Tan Guek Lan: At the beginning, she treated us as strangers. Sometimes she would scream and shout when we did acupuncture on her, and her husband was there to help us convince her. We comforted her and eased her tension. At the same time, we also gave her gentle massages along with acupuncture treatments. She slowly became more receptive to us and more willing to let us treat her.

The TCM team continues to visit the homes of care recipients regularly and also works with the home visit volunteers to cheer up the patients and their families, encouraging them to persevere in their treatment.

TIMA's TCM doctor, Tan Guek Lan: After the treatment, I feel that her left hand can slowly be lifted up, and she can greet us and shake hands with us, her grip is quite strong.

Patients that require home based treatments usually have more complicated and serious conditions than ordinary patients due to prolonged accumulation of the issues, and it takes time to figure out the appropriate treatment plan for them.

TIMA's TCM doctor, Chow Khai Shui: Many people misunderstood that TCM is very slow, it is not true, because TCM treats the root cause of the disease. Basically, most of our patients will get better after receiving our treatment. In some cases, we would refer back to our books to think of ways to achieve better breakthroughs, which is of course helpful in our treatment.

Mdm Chieng became paralysed after surgery. After receiving TCM treatment, she finally stood up

Mr. Lim lost the ability to take care of himself after surgery. He gradually regained his mobility after undergoing treatment.

TIMA's TCM doctor, Chow Khai Shui: I was the first TCM doctor to conduct home care services and it's been 10 years now. The most important thing is to see these patients recover. Of course, there is no way to recover completely, but at least they can finally walk and talk, so life is not so hard for them. We feel very pleased with that, so we think it's worth it.

TIMA's TCM doctor, Tan Guek Lan: The main reason we provide home care services is because they can't walk out of their homes, so we visit them instead. We can't expect too much, we feel happy just to see her progress and her smile.

Dr. Wong Kuan Fong, 8 years in TCM home care services.
Dr. Tan Guek Lan, 9 years in TCM home care services.
Dr. Lee Kong Ghee, 10 years in TCM home care services.
Dr. Chew Sio Peng, 10 years in TCM home care services.
Dr. Chow Khai Shui, 10 years in TCM home care services.

TIMA's TCM doctor, Chow Khai Shui: Seeing the joy of the patients and their freedom from pain and suffering is what drives us to carry on.