‘Children have a duty’

WESTERN BUREAU:

DEPUTY PRESIDENT of the Senate, Senator Charles Sinclair, is pressing for the country’s Maintenance Act to be enforced in cases where persons have abandoned their elderly, particularly parents and grandparents, in infirmaries.

Sinclair wants them held accountable for the care and protection of their parents including those they have allowed to live on the streets to depend on the benevolence of others, including the State, to care for them.

“Some persons who end up here (at the infirmary), their family who are out there, are able-bodied with two hands, two feet, (and have) the capacity to improve themselves because they have the energy. They [have] turned their backs on their relatives who end up staying in this facility,” said Sinclair at a ceremony to open the new male ward at the St. James Infirmary on Wednesday, February 15.

“There is a duty that many persons forget, and I keep mentioning it wherever it comes up appropriately in our various committee meetings, that children have a duty. It’s not only parents who have a duty, but children have a duty to maintain their parents and their grandparents,” the St. James Municipal Corporation, Montego Bay North East division councillor noted.

He said that when families are involved in helping to care for their infirmed parents it makes the process of reintegration much easier.

“I am making an appeal to them that they must not forget because those persons participated in their own personal development over the years,” the Government senator said.

Sinclair argued that where children can maintain or participate in the maintenance of their parents and their grandparents, the law must apply to them and they must participate. He noted too that the enforcement of that law on those whose relatives are residents in the infirmaries, is the responsibility of municipal corporations.

“I think the responsibility falls on us at the municipal corporation where we see that that ability exists. We must take the course that the law says we are to under the Maintenance Act and ensure that even if they can’t do everything, they must participate,” he insisted.

“And you don’t have to participate in money. You can participate in efforts [where] you come here and you spend a day and you share with them and you take care of them. You help to change clothing and you comb their hair and you read them stories and all of that. That is critical to life. And so the maintenance doesn’t have to be all money,” Sinclair reasoned.

“I want to say in relation to persons, whether here or persons who have to use the Refuge of Hope (facility)because it is potentially possible for facilities like this to be a temporary arrangement and that persons can be reintegrated when the circumstances of their family may improve, “ he added.

Meanwhile the Ministry of Health is awaiting advice from the Attorney General’s Chambers on whether civil action can be taken against people who have abandoned their relatives at public hospitals.

“We have sought the advice of the attorney general, and we are waiting on them to give us a response to determine the approach,” Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton told The Gleaner on Wednesda, “We want to ensure that we can hold these relatives responsible.

In December 2021, there were just over 200 persons who had been discharged still staying at hospitals as their relatives had not picked them up, some abandoned for several years.

Referred to as social patients, it costs the Government approximately $408.6 million annually to care for these people. This cost includes remuneration for nurses, medical doctors, social workers, nursing assistants, medication, accommodation, meals, toiletries, and personal care.