To discover the work of Dr Chen Shiling is to realise with humility that there are always more voices to be heard. Dr Chen was 17 when she first volunteered with MINDS, coming face-to-face with the medical inequities of adults with intellectual disabilities (IDs). People whose medical needs—because of challenges in communication and expression, among others— were not being met by the broader healthcare system. She quit her job as a doctor at a public hospital to found Happee Hearts Movement in 2014, which advocates for the healthcare needs of this underrepresented group.

After more than a decade knocking on doors and championing the cause to the healthcare community, Dr Chen has reached significant milestones. Happee Hearts Movement was registered as a charity in 2022 and accredited as an Institution of a Public Character (IPC); and in 2023 it opened IDHealth, the first community-based healthcare service for people with ID in Singapore. To date, the IDHealth clinic service has benefited about 500 people with ID and over 1,000 caregivers. This year, there are plans for palliative and dementia care services as well as the development of an ID practitioner course to broaden the cause’s reach.

⁠What drives you as a changemaker?

The belief that every human being matters. That our intrinsic value is not tied to what we can do, but to who we truly and simply are when we’re stripped of all our abilities and superficialities. Ultimately, my Christian faith guides and drives me.

You left a potentially lucrative, stable and possibly easier career to found Happee Hearts Movement and IDHealth. How did you form this conviction to make this decision?

I started volunteering with people with intellectual disability as a teenager and that opened my eyes to a very different world. Later, as a young doctor, I witnessed first-hand the many challenges they faced accessing healthcare. It made me feel sad, helpless and upset. I felt strongly that something had to be done to address this gap, and when I couldn’t get support to establish a clinical service for them within the hospital, I knew I had to make a choice. Two paths lay before me. One looked broad, well-lit and well-trodden, with a clear end in sight. The other looked narrow, unclear and fraught with obstacles and uncertainty. Yet I could not look away. Because in that path I saw all the people with intellectual disability and their families that I knew, and I saw their suffering. I didn’t know if I could make a real difference, but I knew I could and must try.

Things were very different a decade ago, and in setting up Happee Hearts Movement, you’ve had to learn to fundraise, recruit and manage a staff of almost 30, conduct outreach, and much more on top of the work of providing healthcare itself. How have you navigated these challenges that an education and career in medicine don’t prepare you for?

Three words come to mind: conviction, courage and gratitude. My belief that this had to be done was affirmed repeatedly. The more patients I saw and the more I learnt about their difficulties, the more convinced I was of the tremendous need. With this conviction, I knew I could not give up and was determined to find a way. But I had no idea how. I then needed courage. To learn, to try, to dare to fail, to face challenges head on and to keep going no matter how hard it was. Finally, underpinning all of this was a deep sense of gratitude.

Especially because it was so difficult, I was always grateful for the support of those who care for me, and moved by the kindness of so many I met along the way. Most of all, I’m deeply grateful to my patients and their families. They’ve welcomed me all these years into their lives and taught me so much about what suffering, love and perseverance mean. It’s completely transformed the way I perceive life and it’s ultimately my privilege to be on this journey with them.

Happee Hearts does such meaningful, important work, and in the last year it’s received a positive wave of recognition. How do you set goals and hopes in the work you do?

I started Happee Hearts with the simple desire to provide people with intellectual disability the healthcare that they need and deserve. That has not changed. I first started advocating for this 16 years ago, and today I’m heartened and encouraged by the recognition of their healthcare needs. However, despite the progress, there is still so much that needs to be done. What has changed, though, is that there are now many more people interested in the work and I think constantly about how to encourage and enable more to come on board. How to ensure sustainability is also always on my mind. The work is greater than me and must continue even when I am no longer around.

⁠⁠Looking forward, what change are you most excited to see in the field of healthcare for adults with intellectual disabilities and how can we get there?

I hope to see greater awareness, skillsets and expertise in this field, with more healthcare professionals equipped in the coming years to address the health needs of this population group. To do this, we will need resources and adjustments in our health and social care systems to establish specialised clinical and support services for this group. We will also need to build capability for healthcare professionals, with early exposure in their schooling and undergraduate years through to training and career pathways in their postgraduate years. Overall, mindsets among all of us in society need to shift. When the health of people with intellectual disability is recognised to be important, the changes required will be prioritised too.