Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple, So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, Van­dana Mo­hit, says her min­istry is “ac­tive­ly ad­dress­ing” re­ports of el­der abuse re­ceived by the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, Min­is­ter Mo­hit as­sured that her min­istry was look­ing in­to such re­ports.

She said the Di­vi­sion is tasked with in­ves­ti­gat­ing sev­er­al in­ci­dents that have come to light through so­cial me­dia and di­rect re­ports made to the Old­er Per­sons In­for­ma­tion Cen­tre (OPIC).

The state­ment said these cas­es in­volve var­i­ous forms of abuse, in­clud­ing fi­nan­cial ex­ploita­tion, phys­i­cal harm, psy­cho­log­i­cal mis­treat­ment, and in­ci­dents oc­cur­ring with­in homes for se­nior cit­i­zens.

Min­is­ter Mo­hit as­sured that the wel­fare and pro­tec­tion of old­er per­sons re­main a top pri­or­i­ty for the min­istry.

The state­ment said the Di­vi­sion of Age­ing con­tin­ues to work in close col­lab­o­ra­tion with key stake­hold­ers, such as the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice and the Min­istry of Health, to en­sure that all re­ports are thor­ough­ly in­ves­ti­gat­ed and that ap­pro­pri­ate fol­low-up ac­tions are tak­en to safe­guard the rights and well-be­ing of se­nior cit­i­zens.

The min­istry urged mem­bers of the pub­lic to re­port any sus­pect­ed cas­es of el­der abuse by con­tact­ing the Old­er Per­sons In­for­ma­tion Cen­tre at 800-OPIC (800-6742).