Barbados Elder Abuse Scenarios Highlighted by Former Minister Cynthia Forde in Parliament Address
August 10, 2024
Former Minister Cynthia Forde highlights elder abuse in Barbados, urging for legislation to prosecute offenders. Reports of mistreatment include beatings, starvation, and neglect of seniors, emphasizing the need for action.
Former Minister of People Empowerment & Elder Affairs Cynthia Forde yesterday gave a litany of elder abuse scenarios which she said were occurring in Barbados while expressing hope that legislation will soon result in some people going to prison for inflicting the ill-treatment.
The veteran politician, who said she was still receiving reports of elder abuse to this date, was speaking in Parliament during the Resolution: 2023-2028 National Policy on Ageing.
In a passionate and emotional address, Forde said that every day Government agencies were receiving reports about cruel treatment of seniors as well as elderly persons being beaten, starved and neglected.
“The Elder Affairs Department in which my colleague Dr Wiltshire and I work, and, of course, in association with others at the One Thousand Family and so on, we have interactions with each other to make sure that reporting and so on takes place. Some people call in – [old people] abandoned for a whole week with nothing to eat . . . .
“Our seniors – most of them, I should say – are not getting a good deal at all, especially with friends and families, those two Fs; and it has to be curtailed,” she charged. (MB)
