Dear Editor,
Yesterday, I penned an open letter to Minister Vindhya Persaud regarding the appalling treatment my elderly mother and special needs brother received from a Ministry of Human Services staff member while collecting his public assistance booklet. My mother and brother were publicly berated and humiliated because the worker “did not like the way he smelled.”
I am writing now to acknowledge that the Minister did respond by sending a representative to visit my mother.
It goes without saying that this situation should not have happened at all. My brother and mother should never have been subjected to public humiliation by someone entrusted with serving our most vulnerable citizens. What happened was cruel, unprofessional, and unacceptable.
I appreciate that the Minister took the step of sending someone to investigate. However, real accountability requires:
- A formal, public apology to my mother and brother
- Confirmation that the staff member has faced appropriate disciplinary action
- Some assurance that mechanisms are in place to prevent this from happening to other vulnerable Guyanese
Without these measures, the visit is just another complaint managed, but no real change enacted.
Our elderly, and our special needs community deserve better than reactive damage control when mistreatment goes public. They deserve a ministry culture where dignity and respect are non-negotiable from the start.
I can only hope that this moment leads to genuine systemic change and that it does not fade into the same pattern of indifference that allowed my family’s humiliation in the first place.
Yours truly,
Alexis Stephens
