I realised when I approached the house in the central parishes that I was about to see something truly awful.

The overgrown yard, the mould-covered walls, the dirt and dilapidation stopped me in my tracks. For the first time in all my years working with social services, I backed off even though the caller had said: "Please come right away!" I went back to the car and got my husband.

"Auntie Em", as the public now knows her, was known as an immaculate housekeeper, but what we saw inside that house was so shocking, so absolutely beyond anything I've ever seen in Bermuda that it still makes me shudder.

The case of Auntie Em is extreme and terribly unfortunate, but it has helped shine a light on a serious problem that needs to be addressed as a priority: abuse of elderly people.

Elder abuse can take many forms. It can be abuse in the form of an elder's children taking the family home, or stealing from bank accounts. It can take the form of physical abuse or neglect, whether passive or active.

In the case of Auntie Em, it is difficult not to conclude that she was the victim of active neglect. She was not allowed to wash in the bathtub. That was reserved for others. She drank from faeces-contaminated water, while others drank bottled water. She was not changed, so suffered terrible bedsores.

Auntie Em was a woman with no hope for relief – a prisoner of her own "family" – until her nephew stepped in and hired a care giver, Yvonne Dawson, who eventually took her into her own home. (I must mention in this regard that the nephew spent all his savings to provide Auntie Em with proper care and legal advice).

That fact alone – a caregiver acting on her own to rescue a victim – speaks volumes about what we need to do as a society to help seniors who are abused.

Right now, we do not have laws that protect against elder abuse. This is a major gap that must be closed. How important is the need for action? Anyone who saw Auntie Em's terrible situation knows beyond doubt that elder abuse is a crime. But you will not see anyone prosecuted for it.

There are no protections in place for elders caught in these situations. There are no penalties in place to punish people who commit these brutalities – and they are brutalities, whether physical or emotional.

This may explain why the Government took no action after I raised it on the floor of the House of Assembly in December 2006. We know that the Police, health care and social workers hands were tied.

They are all well-meaning and hard-working people but they do not have the force of law to rescue elders. We can move quickly to close the gap. Other jurisdictions – in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States – have laws and regulatory models that we can apply here.

The World Health Organisation, recognising the scope of the problem, is moving with speed to establish minimum standards for long-term care institutions and general prohibitions against abuse.

The time is long overdue for us to end the excuses. The time has come to take action.

It will not be easy. The reaction of some people to Auntie Em's plight was shocking. In the face of facts and the overwhelming injustice of her situation, people did not believe. Some tried to downplay it; some said we were exaggerating to score political points.

There was no sympathy in their voices, no heart and no recognition that a 95-year-old, partially blind woman had been treated so terribly. We are supposed to be a civil society. Let's do the right thing. Let's get the protections in place to ensure that the people who built this society live free from abuse and in the dignity they deserve.

Louise Jackson is the United Bermuda Party Shadow Minister for Health and Seniors