Georgetown : Government will be taking a comprehensive approach at the policy level, to safeguard the country’s elderly from neglect and abuse in light that a significant number of them are being nursed in private and public institutions.
Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence, revealed that the Administration is well aware of some of the challenges the elderly face in residential care settings. However, she noted that these issues will be addressed shortly, as promised by the Government, when it took office six months ago.
“What I came and I met was a work in progress. In terms of the standards of the home, it was talked about, but we have not found anything that indicated that work was done by the Commission of the Family …these are among the list of things that we have for the Commission for the Elderly, that will be established very soon,” Minister Lawrence explained. Suggested names for the latter Commission are currently before Cabinet for consideration.
Minister Lawrence noted that the issue of care for the elderly has to be looked at in a holistic way, not only in the homes, but also in terms of who are taken into a home, what are the services being provided, and if caregivers at the institutions are adequately trained.
With the establishment of the Commission for the Elderly, and the proactive role of the Social Protection Ministry, there will be a structure to reduce incidents of neglect, as well as for the monitoring of the standards of care provided to older people in private and public institutions.
