St Kitts and Nevis: Abuse against elders opposed

Mrs Patricia Richards-Leader, the CEO of the Grange Healthcare Facility, opposed the abuse against older persons and recommended ways of stopping it.

Mrs Richards-Leader said that St Kitts and Nevis is not different from any other country of the world and noted that the global rate of elder abuse is from 3.2 to 27.5 per cent and out of this, 92 per cent of the abuse is against women.

She said that adult children are the most common abusers of the elderly.

Mrs Richards-Leader said that if someone knows that such abuse is occurring, then they need to put in place a proper system for taking care of the elders.

She added that it is about education; not just about feeding and giving a bath.

She also noted that it is often wrong to think that family is the best to take care of the elderly.

Mrs Richards-Leader also recommended that the government should set up an Elder Abuse Prevention Unit to look into the cases of elder abuse.