‘Ageism by public service employees a dishonour’

State services are plagued by ageism, the head of the Third Age Observatory, Dimos Antoniou, told the CyBC.

The watchdog organisation rep’s statements came in the wake of an incident on Wednesday, where a woman was rudely asked by a state employee why she would bother to secure an ID for her bedridden parent.

The observatory head denounced the interaction and the fact that some state employees “intentionally or unintentionally” exhibit ageism.

“This fact does not honour the public service,” Antoniou told the state broadcaster, noting that the observatory will submit proposals to the relevant ministers to address the problem.

Meanwhile, Nicosia District Officer Andreas Hatjipakkos, told CyBC that public officials should be trained on how to behave empathically.

“The district of Nicosia welcomes the highlighting of such incidents because they then become easier to address,” he said.

An investigation requested by the interior ministry over the matter has been launched, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said on Wednesday.

The minister described the allegations as “unacceptable” after actress Niovi Charalambous described the incident in a Facebook post.

Charalambous said she was met with an attitude that smacked of “unwillingness, bureaucracy and a lot of anger”.

She highlighted her parents were physically unable to go and renew their IDs so she desperately sought to understand what she needed to do for them.

Charalambous said a senior officer at the district office told her, “well, if your mum is bedridden, what do you need an ID for?”

The actress said she could not fathom that someone could be so condescending and lacking in humanity.

Ioannou in his own post on social media noted that in fact a service exists, under the district office, for bedridden individuals – elderly as well as children – to be visited by an employee.