SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment Dr Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh has called on el­der­ly peo­ple to re­port in­stances of abuse to his min­istry. He was ad­dress­ing re­porters dur­ing a walk­a­bout at La Que­sa Road, Freeport, yes­ter­day. Ra­mad­hars­ingh said the el­der­ly can call the toll free num­ber 800-4PPL. Ra­mad­hars­ingh said he was ap­palled to learn that there was a rise in abuse of el­der­ly peo­ple.

He said el­der­ly peo­ple have come to him and com­plained about ne­glect, and mis­treat­ment at the hands of rel­a­tives who were on­ly af­ter their prop­er­ty and pen­sion mon­ey. He was aware of cas­es where they had been aban­doned by rel­a­tives and were liv­ing in squalor. The el­der­ly were vul­ner­a­ble he said, and had be­come vic­tims of vi­o­lence and crime.

Ra­mad­hars­ingh said per­sons with in­for­ma­tion on el­der abuse, can con­tact the Peo­ple's Is­sues Res­o­lu­tion Co-or­di­nat­ing Unit hot­line at 800-4PPL. He en­cour­aged el­ders who were be­ing abused or per­sons who wit­ness el­ders be­ing abused to re­port the cas­es. He said the co-or­di­nat­ing unit would fol­low up by mak­ing re­ports to the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties.

The min­is­ter al­so vis­it­ed a med­ical clin­ic that was run by vol­un­teers from the Eter­nal Spir­it De­liv­er­ance Cen­tre. Rev­erend Gem­ma Mo­hammed said the vol­un­teer doc­tors came from the Unit­ed States and treat­ed over 1,400 peo­ple dur­ing a six-day stay for var­i­ous ail­ments.