ABANDONING ELDERLY RELATIVES A CRUEL ACT
March 09, 2010
We are moved by the Sunday Observer's revelation that some Jamaicans are abandoning their elderly relatives in the St Ann's Bay Hospital and, even worse, refusing to accept them back home after their hospitalisation.
The story of Rosemarie, the 86-year-old woman who has been living in the hospital since 2008, is enough to melt the coldest of hearts.
No member of her family, she said, had bothered to visit her. In fact, according to Rosemarie, her relatives had turned over her care and well-being to Jesus.
That kind of neglect is not easy to accept, and that was obvious in her sotto voce comment during the interview: "Sometimes I feel like jumping through the window."
While we do not get the impression that the treatment meted out to Rosemarie is widespread, we cannot accept the fact that it is being done. Indeed, the Sunday Observer reported that Rosemarie is one of nine such senior citizens at the St Ann's Bay Hospital and that there were 27 abandoned senior citizens there in 2008.
Equally disturbing is the experience of social workers who report that when they try to return some of these seniors to their relatives, the attempt is greeted with threats of violence.
"We have had cases where persons have picked up stones to stone us or draw knives at us when we go to return their relatives, and so we have to call the police to come in and assist us," said Ms Kerrian Adair-Campbell, one of two social workers at the hospital.
Abridged
SOURCE: The Jamaica Observer
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