CITING cases like that of an elderly man who was “found starving in his apartment” after his accounts were drained by his young lover, the “sexual abuse of older men by younger women who seduce them to gain control of their money”, and caregivers who clean out the bank accounts of their frail employers, the Caribbean Community of Retired Persons (CCRP) on Tuesday pressed home its call for the country to enact laws protecting seniors from abuse.

The call was made Tuesday by Jean Lowrie-Chin, founder of the 12,000-member-strong CCRP, to the Special Select Committee of the Senate now examining proposals for an Elderly Care and Protection Act.

Lowrie-Chin cited a 2023 survey on elderly abuse in which 51 per cent of respondents said they had seen elder abuse, with instances in “the community, family homes and care homes” being the “ most prevalent”.

She said when asked what was the nature of elderly abuse witnessed, 29 per cent said physical; 57 per cent said emotional; 33 per cent pointed to financial; and 59 per cent said neglect.

Lowrie-Chin said comments from the elderly on the survey “spoke to sexual abuse of older men by younger women who seduced them to gain access and control of their money as being prevalent”.

“In one case, the bank accounts were drained and the elderly man found starving in his apartment. The young woman tried to gain access to investments and property but there was an intervention and she was removed from the apartment and caregivers assigned. We have cases of daughters who live abroad sending funds for mothers here and the funds are diverted,” she told the committee.

Lowrie-Chin said this week that CCRP received photo evidence of one elderly woman with “a wound to her forehead, tied up in the wheelchair, and we were told she was not getting proper hygiene attendance”.

She said despite the existence of the Maintenance Act, CCRP found no recorded incident of action being taken by the elderly who are affected and suspect this may be due to pride, disability, or fear of reprisal.

“We are recommending a separate court or a dedicated division of the Family Court to deal with cases of elderly abuse. We also recommend that a commission for the elderly be established. The commission should have oversight responsibility for the implementation of the Act, powers to investigate and punish cases of abuse, and holding to account organisations working with the elderly,” she said.

According to Lowrie-Chin, the legislation should also mandate the extradition to Jamaica of relatives or other perpetrators to answer to charges of abuse of the elderly. She said this would help to address the increasing number of social patients occupying hospital beds.

Furthermore, she said, “relatives of those who appear after the death of these persons would be charged”.

In further calling for protection for whistleblowers, she said the Act should give the power to access financial records, where there is suspicion of financial abuse, and should mandate financial institutions to insist on co-holders of accounts of people over 70 years of age.

“We have cases that have come to our attention where a caregiver took a person who has dementia to the bank and cleaned out her account,” she outlined.

In the meantime, lecturer and unit coordinator for the Social Work Programme at The University of the West Indies, Mona, Sandra Latibeaudiere, in her submission to the committee, raised concerns about seniors tricked into “predatory marriages”.

“I went to a seminar recently and there was an increase in the United Kingdom and Canada in predatory marriages. So the Act, when the persons were experiencing it with their own family members, there was no piece of legislation to help them to deal with it so I want to point that out — and the legal minds in here can help us think through what would that look like and how could we address that. Predatory marriages is where sometimes an older adult will marry somebody, sometimes with [the senior experiencing] diminished capacity,” she said.

Latibeaudiere said the situation also held true in cases where there was not necessarily mental impairment.

“We have a lot of that going on with younger persons undermining older persons but in this case, because we are looking at the vulnerability, we want to put it on record because we have persons with diminished capacity who really cannot, and so they can’t get out of it. A younger person, even under duress, can see that it is wrong and find a way to get out of it, but when you have an older person there and you are in total control, that person does not have the capacity to reason that this is not a safe space, because they don’t know, they can’t recognise that it is not a safe space,” she said.

Government committee member and trade unionist Senator Kavan Gayle, in noting that cases of the accounts of the elderly being cleaned out by caregivers are too frequent, said it is his opinion that “banks should employ more due diligence in this particular area for this age group”.

“There ought to be a higher level of protection, in this case, that can kind of mitigate against that kind of perpetrated act,” he stated.

Latibeaudiere in the meantime called for the Act to address violence against older people, stipulating that the offences against older adults and the penalties for such offences be similar to the Childcare and Protection Act.

“It should address mandatory requirements for health care professionals and social workers to report the matter to the police or the National Council for Senior Citizens. The offences addressed in the Act should include neglect, abuse — physical and emotional and financial,” she told the committee, charging that “we have quite a number of caregivers who are in fact hurting their care recipients”.

She further batted for “an agreed age/definition of older adults” in the legislation. “Some people say 65, some say 60; the National Policy of Senior Citizens (2021) defines an older adult as somebody who is 60 years and over, so we need to have a clear definition of who is an older adult,” Latibeaudiere told the committee.

Latibeaudiere also advocated the establishment of a “social insurance contribution for care workers”.

“Sometimes the caregivers, they are left homeless and income insecure after the person who they are caring for has died. Sometimes they don’t get any pay, sometimes whatever they earn they have to use it to help the older adult they are looking after,” she said.