The social workers’ branch of trade union Pasydy on Thursday decried “inaccurate information being circulated” regarding the case of a 79-year-old woman who was allegedly locked inside her house for months by her son.

It expressed “strong dissatisfaction” that “responsibility was wrongly attributed once again to social workers” in relation to the incident, saying that the social welfare services department “never received a complaint about [the woman] being abused so as to be able to act accordingly”.

“After the official complaint was made to the police, all the necessary actions were taken by social workers to ensure the woman’s protection within 24 hours. The social workers, as soon as they became aware of the incident, acted immediately and with empathy,” it said.

To this end, it said that any information to the contrary “does not correspond to reality at all and only serves to damage the important work carried out by the social welfare services department, its workers, and their credibility”.

It also said it “wonders whether we want a scapegoat to blame and use the much-vaunted ‘where is the welfare office?’”, before asking, “or do we want a modern welfare state which helps our vulnerable fellow people, which operates preventatively and does not allow morbid situations … to develop?”

“If we want the former, we do not need to make any changes,” it added, but said that “if we want a modern welfare state and social welfare services, we, as a state and as a society, must take important decisions”.

Those decisions, it said, must include “new legislation” and “new responsibilities”, as well as “the recruitment of new personnel to strengthen the social welfare services department”.

As such, it said, “we must immediately … move on to actions and funding”.

It warned that otherwise, “in a short time, we will be informed about the next drama experienced by our fellow person, and we will once again be looking for the same scapegoat to blame”.

Media reports had surfaced on Wednesday regarding the 79-year-old woman, who suffers from dementia, having been locked in her house by her son for months on end and living in “squalid conditions”.

The police had said on Wednesday night that they had launched an investigation into the matter, with Larnaca police press spokesman Spyros Chrystostomou saying that the police are investigating a case of domestic violence and identifying the alleged perpetrator as the woman’s 58-year-old son.

He added that the woman was being “handled by the social welfare services”, and that she had been transferred to a nursing home.

Meanwhile, social welfare services director Maria Kyratzi told the Cyprus News Agency that on September 29, a friend of the 79-year-old woman had requested that she be admitted to a nursing home.

“Cooperation with the 79-year-old’s daughter followed,” she said, adding that there were subsequent “practical issues regarding her transfer”.

However, she said, the social welfare services department “has not identified any reports of events which point to neglect”.

Asked whether workers from the social welfare services department visited the woman after September 29, she said they had not, and added that “there was nothing” about which they were informed “which required an officer to immediately visit the elderly woman to see her living conditions”.