Elders ‘soon to have more control’ over affairs

Government is pursuing several steps in the name of social justice, such as giving people more control over who takes care of them and strengthening legislation pertaining to youth and the elderly.

This is according to Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey who said it was a known fact Barbados’ population was ageing while cases of elder abuse remained high.

“Twenty per cent of our population is currently over the age of 65 and 25 per cent over 60. The average Barbadian right now is about 47 years old but on this current trajectory, the average Barbadian could easily be near 60 years old by 2050.

“And yet, what we’ve seen is a lot of abuse of these older persons. So we are finalising two pieces of legislation to address this which are currently in drafts,” he said.

Humphrey was addressing the congregation of Better Life Assembly on Hindsbury Road, St Michael, recently on the subject: Pursuing And Achieving Social Justice Through Transformative Social Care Policy In A Developing Country. It was during a service to mark World AIDS Day under the theme Take The Rights Path: My Health, My Right!.

He said the two pieces of legislation were the Lasting Powers of Attorney and the Rights of Older Persons. The former will give elderly people greater control over who was in charge of their affairs.

“The Lasting Powers of Attorney allows a person to choose who they want to take care of them. Currently, some people do have powers of attorney – it’s not in law, but banks do it and different people do it – but when the person they are taking care of gets dementia, it ends. So the Lasting Powers of Attorney allows you to continue to care for the person even if they have dementia.

“But we’ve also designed that legislation in such a way that the person has choices. It can be general, so you have all, or it can be in pieces, such as ‘I want this person to be responsible for my money, but not my health’ and vice versa. So that is in draft and I’m hoping to take that to Cabinet before the end of the month,” he said.

The other piece of legislation, the Rights of Older Persons, is slated to reach Cabinet by month-end. Humphrey said it was a bigger task but he was confident in them both as they had passed through the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel and had been worked on by the Law Reform Commission.

The minister said children, especially those with disabilities, continued to suffer abuse.

“I just want to remind people that in Barbados, on average, we have about 550-plus reported cases of abuse involving over 600 children every year. And the legislation relating to them, as it stands, in some cases, is over 120 years old.

“So we needed to bring in more modern child protection legislation to address a lot more issues. Part of it involves mandatory reporting, which says that you have to report any suspected abuse. Currently, you don’t have to report so the changes allow us to protect children better,” he said.

Humphrey also gave an update on the amalgamation of the Child Care Board, National Assistance Board, Welfare Department and the National Disabilities Unit. He said it was “pretty much finished” with the proposed name being the Social Empowerment Agency.

The sermon was delivered by head of the church, Bishop Joseph Atherley, who spoke about how Jesus was a proponent of social justice. He said Jesus’ teachings prescribed how mankind was to live to be socially just, how they were proactive but not preclusive, and were restorative but not retributive.

“It’s how you respond to people who stand in need of redemption, redemption that Jesus Christ gave. Jesus, in His own terms, entered into the very vortex of injustice and sought to revolutionise and transform it with radical living. And that is what we are called to do today,” said Atherley, a former Government minister and Opposition Leader.

“There is a lot in Barbados today that constitutes social injustice. We have to try our best to see how we can change and turn around a lot of that over time. I don’t know where you stand today, but I pray that God will bless you with open-mindedness, open-heartedness and open-sightedness to see the needs of men and to see how you can respond in a way that demonstrates truth,” he said.

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