Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Don­na Cox is urg­ing fam­i­lies to do their part in check­ing in on el­der­ly rel­a­tives reg­u­lar­ly to en­sure their health and well-be­ing.

Cox made the call af­ter the de­com­pos­ing bod­ies of three el­der­ly men were found in their homes in sep­a­rate in­ci­dents over the last two weeks.

Last Tues­day, po­lice were called to dif­fer­ent parts of La Canoa, San­ta Cruz, where the de­com­pos­ing bod­ies of two el­der­ly men were dis­cov­ered. In the first in­ci­dent, 82-year-old Leroy James was found in the bed of his Saut D’Eau Road, home.

Hours lat­er po­lice were called to Vicky Trace, where they found the body of Amin Pierre, 68, on a bed.

In the most re­cent in­ci­dent, 66-year-old Gre­go­ry Git­tens was found in his Bak­er Trace, Coalmine, San­gre Grande home on Tues­day af­ter­noon.

Po­lice were told by rel­a­tives that Git­tens was ill for some time, but re­fused to seek med­ical treat­ment.

No marks of vi­o­lence were found on the bod­ies of any of the men and it is sus­pect­ed they died of nat­ur­al caus­es but were found dead days af­ter as they lived alone.

Re­spond­ing to Guardian Me­dia’s ques­tions via What­sApp on Thurs­day, Cox said she was sad­dened to hear about all of the dis­cov­er­ies and said the in­ci­dents re­flect­ed the chal­lenges that many el­der­ly peo­ple face.

She said the deaths high­light­ed the need for com­mu­ni­ties to ex­tend fur­ther sup­port to el­der­ly res­i­dents, es­pe­cial­ly those liv­ing alone.

“While we may not al­ways see the signs of dis­tress, reg­u­lar checks can some­times be the life-sav­ing fac­tor in these sce­nar­ios.

“Fam­i­ly re­la­tion­ships are of im­mea­sur­able im­por­tance to the el­der­ly. Iso­la­tion and lone­li­ness, have been linked to de­clines in phys­i­cal health and of­ten re­sults in de­pres­sion and so­cial anx­i­ety. A lack of so­cial in­ter­ac­tion is al­so as­so­ci­at­ed with a weak­ened im­mune sys­tem, a greater like­li­hood of de­vel­op­ing car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease and a de­cline in cog­ni­tive abil­i­ty.

“For se­niors stay­ing in touch with loved ones is in­cred­i­bly im­por­tant. As peo­ple get old­er, their so­cial cir­cles tend to dwin­dle, fam­i­lies re­lo­cate, friends pass on or get sick, or be­come con­fined to their homes and are un­able to stay ac­tive. This can im­pact on their phys­i­cal and men­tal well­be­ing. Hu­mans are by na­ture so­cial crea­tures and this in­abil­i­ty to in­ter­act so­cial­ly can lead to de­pres­sion, high blood pres­sure, mem­o­ry loss and over­all cog­ni­tive de­cline.”

Cox al­so of­fered sev­er­al sug­ges­tions in­clud­ing reg­u­lar in-per­son vis­its, sched­uled phone calls and sim­ply form­ing re­la­tions with neigh­bours to of­fer a lay­er of com­pan­ion­ship that can be used to su­per­vise the el­der­ly.

She added that tech­nol­o­gy should al­so be used to bring fam­i­lies clos­er through vir­tu­al meet­ings, game nights and oth­er means of con­nect­ing peo­ple.

Cox added that while the re­cent deaths were trag­ic, she hoped the pub­lic learned from it and used it to strength­en their re­solve to pro­tect the el­der­ly.