The Social Solidarity Ministry said today that it had referred a case of abuse on an elderly person at Saint Vincent De Paul to the police for investigation. The Ministry said it took immediate action after receiving the report yesterday.
Sources said a male staff member is being investigated for allegedly beating an elderly patient.
“After the report was received the necessary action was taken and the case was referred to the police for investigation. The Ministry and the SVPR administration felt that the incident should be referred to the authorities so that immediate justice could be made.”
Abuse on the elderly would not be tolerated, the Ministry said.
Staff member 'on forced leave'
A spokesperson for Parliamentary Secretary Justyne Caruana confirmed that a member of staff had been put on forced leave pending the investigation.
“In view of the Parliamentary Secretariat’s efforts against abuse on older persons, the Parliamentary Secretariat for Rights of Persons with Disability and Active Ageing issued a direction to St Vincent de Paul administration and the Elderly Department in order for every alleged case of elderly abuse to be investigated directly by the police. This is also being done after the Parliamentary Secretariat drafted a law against elder abuse, which is now in force.
The case was reported yesterday, where a resident was allegedly physically abused by a member of the staff. As per PSC regulations, the member of staff is now on forced leave till the police investigation is concluded. Depending on the outcome of the investigation, the perpetrator will be arraigned to court accordingly. There were no other reports of other cases concerning the same person.”
PN condemns incident
In comments to this newsroom, PN spokesman for the elderly Robert Cutajar said the Opposition always condemned any form of abuse. He asked, however, if the government and the SVPR administration were adopting a two-weights-two measures approach when it came to such cases. Referring to similar cases reported in the media in the past weeks, Mr Cutajar said it seems that the government was not always using the same yardstick in cases of alleged abuse on elderly persons.