Specialized care to residents being provided by Elderly Home Visiting Committee

The Elderly Home Visiting Committee, since its installment last July, has made significant
progress in organizing its 10-member team and has been providing practical, timely, and
specialized care to residents with a number of health related issues.
It was noted that the committee earlier this month paid a visit to Uncle Eddie’s, Ivy Hall, Holy
Family, Gentle Women’s, Archers, New Nazareth, and National Veterans Rest Homes, as part of
commemorating Month of the Elderly. The committee said that while the team may not be able
to visit all 19 homes across the country before the end of the month, there are plans on stream to
have visitations continue. The team said that they did checkups and extended personalized care
to residents. The Human Services and Social Security Ministry also sought to extend thanks to
Dr. Ruth Quaicoe and her team from Georgetown Public Hospital for working along on this
initiative.
Minister Dr. Vindhya Persaud who appointed the committee conducts a holistic review of elderly
residential facilities to ensure that they are keeping in line with the guidelines set out for them. It
noted that this consists of responsible citizens drawn from society. The Committee further noted
that it has already informed all of the homes that it will be visiting them and has sent the
Minimum Standards for Elderly Residential Facilities. This, they said is so that they can fix
whatever measures are lacking before the team shows up. “Our main goal is to make the home as
functional as possible. We don’t want to just go and criticize, so we’re giving them time to get
things in place,” the Committee Chairperson, Dr. Kamela Bemaul-Sukhu said.
The Committee Chairperson noted that the specialty services include dermatology, audiology,
cardiology, dental, ophthalmology, mental health and psychiatry. She said that a list is kept of
who needs glasses, hearing aids, etc. so that the team can help them source it. It was revealed that
the committee is visiting the facilities collectively or in pairs and has free access to every part of
the facility. It noted that the committee is also collaborating with the administrator, board and
ministry to improve the quality of care provided by the facility.
The team is also expected to monitor the facilities to ensure that residents are treated with
consideration, respect in full recognition of personal dignity and individuality, and will seek to
ensure that the residents receive care, treatment and services which are adequate, appropriate and
in compliance with relevant statutes, policies and rules. It was disclosed that under special
circumstances where a request is made, the committee can conduct investigations, and members
of the Committee may view other pertinent records where necessary. As such, it said that in
order to view such records, though, the Committee will have to get the permission of the resident
or their legal representative. The Administrator of the home can give permission if the resident is
unable to give consent or has no legal representative.
Therefore, in cases where the Committee has reasonable cause to believe that the Administratoris
not acting in the best interest of an incapacitated resident, the Gerontologist on the Committee
can examine the resident and findings can be used in the report submitted to the Ministry; or an
examination may be done by a qualified medical officer, identified by the Visiting Committee,
toproduce a report to the committee.