Minister of Health and Wellness the Hon. Dr. Michael Darville commented the Older Persons Rights, Protection and Care Bill recently introduced in the House Of Assembly on September 16th.
While visiting Grand Bahama this week he spoke about what issued are addressed in the bill including penalties for the mistreatment of older persons. He said, “it also speaks about some of the new things that we intend to put in place like monitoring devices for seniors who have lost their cognitive skills, we attach a monitoring device, we can find our seniors.”
According to the minister the government also intends to strengthen support at the community level including mental health care facilities. “This is all tied in with the Mental Health Act that was passed in 2022. This act is one of the most sophisticated pieces of legislation and it required a lot of funding to bring it fully into force. The first part of the act was the training of 41 mental health nurses who will be integrated in the community where there can be support.”
Dr. Darville also addressed the call from elderly homes for financial assistance. He said, “always remember the bill is being carried by the Department of Social Services. And so even though the bill will go to Parliament, it will be enacted, to bring the bill into force requires a lot more steps and one of the key steps is finding the funding that will support our facilities, will also support in the training of care givers and the list goes on and on. So we’re now taking the care of our elderly into the 21st century, something that is long overdue. And I want to thank the entire public and private sector who pumped a lot into this particular bill for it to be something that is worth while to bring to the House of Assembly.”
