The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

RELATIVES responsible for older people could be legally required to provide them with food, safe housing and healthcare — and in some cases collect them from hospital after discharge — under sweeping proposed legislation that would impose new duties on families, caregivers and professionals.

The Older Persons Rights, Protection and Care Bill, 2026, which is out for consultation, would also require doctors, nurses, police officers and other professionals to report suspected abuse or neglect, create a specific offence of financially exploiting someone aged 65 or older and give courts broad powers to remove vulnerable older people from unsafe circumstances.

The legislation would extend protections beyond the existing framework, which already regulates residential care establishments and allows protection orders for domestic violence, including financial abuse involving household members and dependants. Social Services also already operates a Senior Citizens Division and investigates complaints involving older people.

However, the proposed law would establish an elder-specific statutory regime reaching into private homes, family caregiving arrangements, financial management, hospital discharge, professional reporting and government investigations.

Under the bill, next of kin would have a general duty to help an older person achieve an appropriate standard of living and would be responsible for ensuring that an older person in their care has a safe living environment, adequate food and water, clothing and other essentials.

They would also be responsible for making necessary arrangements for supportive, preventive and curative healthcare as well as long-term and palliative care.

The bill defines next of kin as the nearest living relative by blood who is expected to assume responsibility for an older person's care, support or decision-making when that person is unable to do so themselves.

One of the most consequential provisions deals with elderly patients discharged from public hospitals.

Where a next of kin had previously provided care or assistance and taken the older person to hospital, that relative would have to arrange to collect the person from the ward after being notified of their discharge. If the hospital medically transports the person home, the relative would have to receive them.

The obligations would form part of a broader regime governing caregivers. Every caregiver would have what the bill describes as both a moral and legal responsibility to provide reasonable care, act in the older person's best interests, avoid abuse and neglect, administer prescribed medication or treatment properly and operate only within the authority legally given to them.

The legislation would also introduce mandatory reporting requirements for professionals who encounter suspected elder abuse or neglect.

Doctors, dentists, mental health practitioners, nurses, patient care technicians, hospital administrators, social workers, police officers and people providing healthcare, welfare, education or religious services would have to immediately report circumstances where they know or reasonably suspect that an older person needs care and protection.

The duty would extend to anyone who, because of the nature of their work, owes a duty of care to an older person.

Failure to make a required report would be an offence. Intentionally making a false report or supplying false or misleading information would also be an offence.

Reports received by a social worker, police officer or manager of a residential care establishment would have to be passed to the relevant authority within 24 hours, even where the underlying information is confidential.

The bill would also place deadlines on Social Services that do not appear in the existing administrative system.

The department would have to investigate a complaint within 24 hours where emergency care and protection is required and within 72 hours in general care and protection cases.

Complaints could be made anonymously, and people reporting suspected abuse in good faith would be protected from civil and criminal liability, with their identities protected.

The proposal would also create protection officers — qualified social workers empowered to visit residences and registered residential care facilities, investigate complaints and enquire into the welfare of older people.

Financial abuse would be addressed through a specific elder-exploitation offence carrying penalties of up to a $50,000 fine, five years' imprisonment, or both.

The offence would cover improperly or dishonestly using, controlling, withholding or benefiting from an older person's money, property, pension, National Insurance benefits or other resources.

It would include theft, fraud and embezzlement; forging documents; coercing an older person into changing a will, transferring property, granting a power of attorney, taking on debt or making gifts; unauthorised bank withdrawals; and misuse of debit or credit cards.

Withholding an older person's pension or social assistance without using it for their welfare, preventing them from accessing their own money, unlawfully disposing of their property, charging excessive caregiving fees and using deception, intimidation or manipulation for financial gain would also fall within the offence.

Although theft, fraud and financial abuse are already addressed elsewhere in Bahamian law, the bill would establish a specific framework dealing with exploitation of older people. The existing Domestic Violence (Protection Orders) Act, for example, already recognises financial abuse where it occurs within covered domestic relationships.

Under the proposed regime, authorities could require a person suspected of exploiting an older person to produce receipts and records showing how the person's money was spent. Police, the National Insurance Board or another authority could investigate.

People formally authorised to manage an older person's affairs would face additional accountability requirements.

The authorisation would have to be made freely and without coercion, be in writing and be witnessed by an independent person.

Anyone administering an older person's benefits would have to use the money solely for that person's welfare, including food, accommodation, clothing, medical and personal care, transportation and assistive devices.

They would also have to maintain receipts and records and give an accurate account of transactions when required, including to the executor or other legal representative of the older person's estate after their death.

The bill would prohibit them from using the funds for their own benefit unless authorised by law or by an older person with decision-making capacity.

Courts would meanwhile acquire wide-ranging powers to intervene where an older person needs protection.

The older person, a social worker, a healthcare provider, a professional caregiver, or anyone with reasonable grounds to suspect protection is required could apply for care and protection orders.

In emergencies, a court could authorise removal of an older person from a location, prohibit their removal from accommodation, determine who can have contact with them, exclude a named person from their home and require medical, psychiatric or psychological examinations.

A social worker or police officer could also remove an older person from their residence without first obtaining a court order where the older person consents and immediate protection is considered necessary. The family would have to be informed and a court application made within 24 hours.

Where the older person does not consent, any person could apply to a court for an order authorising their removal to a place of safety.

A court could order an older person to remain in a place of safety for up to six months and extend that period where circumstances justify it.

The bill would also prohibit abuse, neglect and abandonment of older people and impose additional requirements on residential care establishments.

The Bahamas has regulated residential care facilities under the Residential Care Establishments Act since 2004, including through licensing, inspections and statutory provisions concerning the protection and care of residents.

The new bill would add requirements for staff training in areas including nutrition, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, bedding and wound care. Managers or employees who abuse or neglect an older person could face a $50,000 fine, five years' imprisonment, or both.

The proposed legislation also sets out broader rights for people 65 and older, including autonomy over personal, financial and healthcare decisions and protection from improper interference with their property, income, pensions and benefits.

It would prohibit unfairly denying an older person access to public places, services and opportunities because of their age and expressly recognise their right to take personal risks in pursuing social participation and intimate and sexual relationships.

Government would also be required to develop and publish a National Older Persons Policy within 12 months of the law taking effect, with priority given to a National Dementia Strategy.

The Davis administration's 2026-2030 National Health Strategy already calls for a national assessment of long-term care needs, development of a tiered system covering home, community and institutional care and expansion of home-care and telehealth services. The bill would put a broader series of obligations concerning older people into legislation.

Those provisions include promoting day-care and home-based services, community nursing, assistive technology and a regulated transportation service for older people.

A designated liaison officer would also help older people navigate healthcare and other public services, including verifying medical appointments before inter-island travel where reasonably practicable and assisting when appointments are cancelled or rescheduled.