It is often said that you can judge a society by the way it treats those who cannot help themselves, whether they are the very young, the physically or mentally challenged, or the very old.

Last week's troubling story about "Auntie Em" and the neglect she suffered begs the question about how we as a community treat the elderly, who, to a great extent, made Bermuda the successful society that it is.

There have been some improvements in the treatment of the elderly in the last ten years. Pensions have been increased, the Sylvia Richardson Home in St. George's is a model – not yet emulated anywhere else – for senior's care, and generally speaking, supervision and regulation in rest homes has improved.

However, pensions are still inadequate for those without savings, many of the Island's rest homes are still in a shameful state, having been left vacant or turned into emergency housing. Far, far, too many of the elderly are living in desperate conditions.

"Aunty Em" clearly was, and had it not been for her caring nephew, she might still be. Sam Strangeways' story on Friday graphically described the conditions in which she was living and for those still in any doubt, there is a video on www.theroyalgazette.com that shows the conditions as well.

It is important to note that aside from Auntie Em's nephew, there were other good Samaritans as well, notably nurse Yvonne Dawson, who took the 95-year-old into her own home when there was no hospital bed available, and a number of Government officials who carefully investigated the situation and left no doubt about their opinions of the living conditions.

But the Government officials also highlighted a problem preventing them from taking further action, which is the lack of regulation or laws protecting the elderly in cases of negelct or abuse, especially when they are living in a private home as opposed to a regulated nursing home.

It is not entirely surprising that there is no law, because this is a particularly complicated area, concerning the rights of senior citizens to live their own lives, their degree of mental competence and physical ability and the broader question of what rights any Government has to intervene in the absence of a complaint.

Against those concerns, of course, is the recognition that the elderly, and especially those who are in their 80s or older, are amongst the most vulnerable members of society. They can be prey to greedy relatives, conmen, or they simply can no longer look after themselves.

This is an area that needs a full and sensitive debate, and on that note, it was surprising and disappointing to see a Government response last Friday that focused almost solely on complaints that Community Affairs Minister Wayne Perinchief had not been re-interviewed for the story, and then accused Ms Dawson and Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson of making the story public purely to make trouble, when Ms Dawson had opened her own home to the woman.

With an election looming, it is possible that polticians will see the worst in all news stories, but one wonders just how Mr. Perinchief could fail to see that his own civil servants had done the best they could in this situation, and that it is clear to all right thinking people that this a complex situation in which there are no easy answers.

How much better it would have been for Mr. Perinchief to acknowledge the situation, say what Government was doing about it, and then to have got down to it. It makes one wonder just what the Government's priorities are. The conclusion that must be reluctantly drawn is that they don't seem to be with Auntie Em and others like her.