Ho Hau Yan Andy
Associate Professor
School of Social Sciences
College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

Dr Andy Ho is Associate Professor of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, and Joint Honorary Associate Professor, Li Kong Chian School of Medicine. He is also Deputy Director of Research at Palliative Care Centre for Excellence in Research and Education (PalC), as well as the Board Director of the prestigious International Work Group on Death Dying and Bereavement (IWGDDB), and the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC). Andy is a multiple award winning researcher, educationist and psychologist who specializes in psychosocial gerontology, hospice and palliative care, holistic therapies and community empowerment.  A strong advocate for social justice and equality, he has devoted his research and teaching for the promotion of civil participation, creative engagement, and responsible citizenry to create a more caring and compassionate global community.

Research Statement

Andy’s passion lies in enhancing individual, familial and societal resilience for overcoming adversities, while attaining transformative growth through psychosocial capacity building. His work with vulnerable populations including disaster survivors, terminally-ill patients, bereaved families, formal and informal caregivers, isolated seniors and disadvantaged youths has strengthened his conviction that evidence-based policy making informed by high quality research can build and fortify the collective strength and compassionate citizenry necessary for positive social change. To achieve these goals, his research enterprise adopts a pragmatic epistemological stance that highlights both qualitative and quantitative methodologies for obtaining comprehensive understandings of complex social phenomena, which in turn enable the development of holistic strategies and interventions to address them. With the integration of participatory action research approaches, his aspires to elicit the lived experiences and raise the voices of his research participants – to engage them in collaborative knowledge creation, to develop solutions to problems that best fit their needs, and to empower them in becoming active participants of their own lives and within their communities. This triangulation of research paradigms serves to ensure all empirical efforts are translatable and applicable in real life contexts, whilst the identified solutions to social ills are developed with the people, by the people, and for the people.

Publications

Ho, A.H.Y., Dutta, O., Tan-Ho, G., Tan, T.H.B., Low, C.X., Ganapathy S., Car, J., Ho, R.M.H., & Miao C.Y. (In-Press). A Novel Narrative e-Writing Intervention (NeW-I) of Children with Chronic Life-Threatening Illnesses: Protocol for an Open-Label Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Research Protocol.

Ho, A.H.Y., Ho, R.H.M., Pang, J. Ortega, E., Bajpai, R., & Ma, S.H.X. (2019). The Arts for Ageing Well: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis of the Effects of Arts Engagements on Holistic Wellbeing among Asian Elderly Population. BMJ Open, 9, e029555, DOI: 10.1136/ bmjopen-2019-029555

Ho, A.H.Y., Tan-Ho, G., Ngo, T.A., Ong, G., Cheng, P.H., Dignadice, D. & Potash, J.S. (2019). A novel Mindful Compassion Art Therapy (MCAT) for reducing burnout and promoting resilience for EoL care professionals: A waitlist RCT Protocol. Trials, 20, 406, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-019-3533-y

 

Latest Projects

2019-2022. The Healthcare Worker’s Journey of Care and Recovery: A qualitive study on the lived experience of supporting stroke patients in Singapore’s rehabilitation unit.  [Overall Programme Principal Investigator – Funded by the Rehabilitation Research Institute.  Amount: $299,800]

2019-2020.  Non-Palliative Care Professionals Caring for End-of-Life Care Patients: A Lived Experience Study. [Principal Investigator – Funded by the Lien Foundation Special Grant. Amount: $120,000]

2018-2021. Development and Evaluation of a novel Narrative E-Writing Intervention (NeW-I) for Parents of Children with Life-Limiting Illness: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial [Principal Investigator – Funded by the Temasek Foundation. Amount: S$253,390]

Other affiliation(s)

Associate Professor, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine

Expertise
Medicine, Psychology, Sociology, Healthcare

Research Interests

Research Category
Arts, Design and Media, Psychology, Sociology
Potential NISTH Challenge Statements
Advancing inclusive living and ageing, Mental wellbeing, Sociocultural system
Related NTU2025 Research Clusters
Brain & Learning
Related RIE2025 Domains
Human Health and Potential (HHP)
Related Humanity Grand Challenges
Addressing technology’s impact on humanity
Affiliated Sustainable Development Goals
GOAL 3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING – Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages is essential to sustainable development.
GOAL 4: QUALITY EDUCATION – Obtaining a quality education is the foundation to improving people’s lives and sustainable development.
GOAL 11: SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES – There needs to be a future in which cities provide opportunities for all, with access to basic services, energy, housing, transportation and more.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.
Last Updated
27 Apr 2020
Last Updated
30 Sep 2021