The National Office for Seniors and the Physically Challenged has been accused of failing to investigate an alleged case of elder abuse — the latest in a series of complaints about the publicly funded agency.

The office, which receives almost $1 million in taxpayers’ money every year, is tasked with conducting investigations of alleged abuse under the Senior Abuse Register Act 2008.

But the Department of Health will not reveal who, if anyone, is the Senior Abuse Registrar and a charity has questioned whether the office is adequately staffed, apparently having just three employees. The daughter of one elderly woman told The Royal Gazette that she had tried repeatedly, without success, to get the office to investigate her complaints against her brother of mental and financial abuse.

She claimed that despite e-mails, telephone calls and meetings with a case worker, no inquiry was ever launched and she is still seriously concerned about her brother’s behaviour towards their mentally ill and blind 85-year-old mother — and his plans to take her out of the country, limiting her contact with other relatives and friends.

“We have sought help for the past six years,” she said.

“We have gone to the necessary authorities to seek help for justice and we haven’t got any. There is so much anguish that has now come out of this.”

The NOSPC denies her claims and says her allegations have been “investigated more than once”, although it would not comment on the outcome of those inquiries.

It also failed to share information with this newspaper on the results of any of its other investigations or reveal how many have led to prosecutions under the Act, which came into effect in March 2008.

The Ministry of Health stonewalled the same questions and failed to answer queries about who has replaced the recently retired John Payne as Senior Abuse Registrar.

According to this newspaper’s archives, only two people have been convicted under the Senior Abuse Register Act since it came into force 6½ years ago.

Their names were added to the Senior Abuse Register and, as of May last year, there was reportedly only one other name on the list.

The law, when it was brought before Parliament, was heralded by Government as a way to protect the Island’s growing elderly population from physical, sexual and psychological abuse, financial exploitation and long-term neglect.

It was also aimed at stopping anyone guilty of abusing a senior from working with elderly people in the future. But the legislation’s effectiveness has proved difficult to determine, with the NOSPC releasing only scant information on its caseload.

Government’s latest Budget book says the NOSPC “managed” 205 cases of elder abuse in 2012-13, but investigated only six. It shares nothing on the results of those six inquiries. The same document predicts a caseload of 300 for this financial year, with the number of investigations projected as 15.

Mr Payne, the civil servant who was charged with maintaining the Senior Abuse Register under the Act, retired on October 30 and there has been no response from the Ministry of Health on whether he has been replaced.

Elizabeth Stewart, from Action on Alzheimer’s and Dementia, said that she asked the Health Minister for the name of the new Registrar several weeks ago but had yet to be told.

“I don’t know who the Registrar of Abuse is now,” she said. “It’s important that we know. Under the Act, somebody has to be appointed; otherwise, where do people go [to report abuse]?

“Who do you report a case to? The Act says you have to report it to the Registrar of Abuse. Does that mean the Act is null and void? It’s a concern.

“There’s not enough staff at the National Office to support all the things that they do. It’s like a ticking time bomb.”

The 58-year-old woman who spoke to this newspaper about her mother said she first contacted the office in October 2010 to make a complaint of elder abuse against her brother. As evidenced in court papers she shared with this newspaper, he had previously been ordered by Magistrates’ Court to stay away from his mother for a year because of “domestic violence”.

The violence alleged by the elderly woman in an affidavit in support of her application for a protection order was mental, rather than physical.

“My son and his family took over my home,” she said. “If I dared to mention anything to him, my son would become aggressive and hostile to me, and subject me to loud, profane, abusive and threatening language and approach me in a threatening way and come all up in my face.”

She added that the stress led to her collapsing and being admitted to hospital for five days in October 2007, stating, “As a result of the behaviour of my son and his wife, I now live in a climate of fear and intimidation in my own home.”

The woman’s daughter said that her complaint to the NOSPC in 2010 centred around fears that her brother was exerting pressure on their mother to give her life savings to him after she opened a joint account with him at HSBC and moved almost $130,000 from her other accounts.

The woman’s nephew, who held power of attorney for her, made a separate complaint about that to the Bermuda Police Service, which was investigated by detectives.

Police Commissioner Michael DeSilva said: “This matter was brought to us in 2010 as a case of senior abuse in the form of theft of cash from a bank account. A man was arrested and interviewed in connection with the allegation.

“Our investigation identified the funds in question, but concluded that the money had not been stolen. No one was charged with any criminal offences and this matter was closed by the police.

“As such, the investigation is not a matter of a public record and I am restricted on what I can say about it. What I can say is it appears that a dispute between the family has played a role in this case.

“Shortly after the original complaint was made, the police met with members of the family and their attorney and gave advice on how the issues could be resolved. Apart from that, it isn’t my place to publicly share any more of the family’s personal matters.”

The daughter says her mother’s mental health began to deteriorate in 2009 and, eventually, she had both dementia and psychosis diagnosed.

At about the same time, the senior’s son rekindled their relationship, calling her regularly once the protection order ran out and eventually moving back into her home.

The elderly woman changed her power of attorney to her 60-year-old son at some point in 2012 — an act that her daughter, nephew, brother and a family friend believe was done under pressure from the son.

All four told this newspaper that they feared the power of attorney was switched under coercion, although the lawyer who carried out the process may have had no reason to suspect as much.

It appears the elderly woman requested the change herself and a psychological assessment report was commissioned from a local psychologist who concluded that she was of sound mind and able to make the decision.

The assessment noted that the woman was taking medication for dementia but found no evidence to conclusively support a diagnosis of progressive dementia. It warned that the senior was at risk of financial abuse and exploitation because of her visual impairment. In September 2012, the daughter sent a letter to NOSPC case worker Dennika Williams, outlining her “concerns for the continued abuse my mother continues to endure at the hands of my brother”.

She alleged that her brother influenced their mother not to take her medication, trashed a spare room, wasted her money on unnecessary legal fees and spent hours talking privately with her until she became agitated.

The daughter wrote: “My prayer is that you will help relieve my mother of the oppression she continues to experience whenever she receives a call from [her son] or whenever he visits her. We are in dire need of your professional assistance.”

She says the letter did not prompt an investigation and that she was told verbally by a case worker that it was a family matter requiring the assistance of a lawyer.

The family friend wrote to the NOSPC in January 2013 to complain that the son now had power of attorney for the mother and that he had obtained it by “controlling her mind, a mind that he was allowed to abuse with impunity”.

Eventually, Kevin Monkman, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health, became involved in the correspondence. He told the family friend in an e-mail dated May 22, 2013, that he had been in touch with the Vulnerable Persons Unit of the Bermuda Police Service to “ask them to initiate an investigation into the allegations of senior abuse”.

The daughter and family friend say that they have heard nothing since — from the Ministry, the NOSPC or the Police. Since contacting this newspaper, and at our suggestion, they have been in touch with the Police’s financial crime unit directly and are waiting for a response.

Mr Payne told this newspaper two days before his retirement: “Be advised that the Senior Abuse Register Act 2008 section ten prohibits a person from disclosing information obtained in the performance of his or her duties under the Act and makes it an offence.

“This matter has been investigated more than once, including involvement with the Bermuda Police Service and advice from the Attorney General’s Chambers.”

The son denied ever abusing his mother and said that her life savings remained intact.

“My mother has made me power of attorney and until I start stealing it, I’m innocent but I ain’t been stealing nothing,” he said.

“If she had dementia, then we couldn’t have got her to put me as power of attorney.

“I have never hurt anybody in my life. I still ask her why she took me to court and she apologises.”

He added that he was hoping to arrange a trip to the United States for her, where he lives.

“If my momma wanted to come up and live here, what’s wrong with that,” he added. The NOSPC was accused in June by Derrick Burgess, the Shadow Minister for Seniors, of failing to act on a string of complaints about elderly care home residents.

It has previously come under fire from the charity Age Concern and from the late Louise Jackson, when she was an Opposition MP. Mrs Jackson criticised the office for failing to act effectively in three high-profile cases involving seniors and revealed by this newspaper: Auntie Em, Miss C and Mrs O.

Mr Payne said in May last year that the capacity of the Registrar and the NOSPC to carry out investigations was “very limited”.

Health and Seniors Minister Jeanne Atherden said in September: “We are currently conducting a review of the National Office for Seniors and the Physically Challenged to document their mandate and to set out their roles and responsibilities. We have asked stakeholders to provide input into this review and we look forward to their feedback.”

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