Michelle Loubon

Di­rec­tor of the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing Dr Jen­nifer Rouse says the leg­is­la­tion gov­ern­ing the Homes for Old­er Per­sons Act 2009 has not yet been pro­claimed. In a pre­vi­ous in­ter­view (De­cem­ber 4, 2011), Rouse said un­der Of­fences and Penal­ties in the Homes for Old­er Per­sons Act 2009 reg­u­la­tions, any li­censee, man­ag­er or em­ploy­ee of a home for old­er peo­ple who wil­ful­ly as­saults, ill-treats, ne­glects or ex­pos­es the el­der­ly and fails to pro­vide food, care or lodg­ing is li­able to a fine of $25,000 and im­pris­on­ment for two years. The in­tent was to put laws in place to safe­guard peo­ple who are in­sti­tu­tion-housed and those over age 65. The el­der­ly num­ber about 156,000 or 12 per cent of the pop­u­la­tion.

In­ter­viewed on Fri­day, just days away from the Unit­ed Na­tions' ob­ser­va­tion of In­ter­na­tion­al Day for the El­der­ly on Oc­to­ber 1, Rouse said, "The leg­is­la­tion has not been pro­claimed as yet. It is await­ing procla­ma­tion since the ad­min­is­tra­tive struc­tures have to be es­tab­lished for the in­spec­torate. The leg­is­la­tion is jug­gling with the Chil­dren's Au­thor­i­ty. The Chil­dren's Au­thor­i­ty is equal­ly im­por­tant. Part of the leg­is­la­tion was al­ready pro­claimed in the leg­isla­tive agen­da. There are parts of it that have to be ad­dressed. It is shared leg­is­la­tion."?

Rouse added, "Be­cause of Clause 34 peo­ple now un­der­stand why we need procla­ma­tion. The leg­is­la­tion is still in the pipeline.?The act was as­sent­ed to in 2007 and the reg­u­la­tion in 2009."?Oc­to­ber 1 has been set aside to cre­ate a re­minder to every­one to show re­spect for the el­der­ly.

Longevi­ty: Shap­ing The Fu­ture

On plans for Oc­to­ber 1, Rouse said, "The theme is Longevi­ty: Shap­ing the Fu­ture. We have from Oc­to­ber to De­cem­ber to have events." She did not di­vulge any fur­ther de­tails. She said Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment Dr Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh would be prepar­ing a pub­li­ca­tion which would be in­sert­ed in the news­pa­pers. She made ref­er­ence to the pro­gramme Salu­ta­tions For Cen­te­nar­i­ans. Cen­te­nar­i­ans in T&T num­ber more than 300. "We have to find them. We do have a pro­gramme. We could shape it to var­i­ous forms. It is there al­ready. But we haven't done a project."