There has been an astonishing response to the case of Mrs O, the 98-year-old woman suffering from dementia who lives on her own with very little support or care.Caring residents have given money to ensure that she gets meals and funding to take care of her immediate needs. And others, including students, have offered to help with cleaning, bathing and the like.It is yet another example of how people in Bermuda respond to those in need, even when many today are struggling and are worse off than they have been.So it is to be hoped that Mrs O’s days will now be better and that she will be able to live with some dignity.But that does not change the fact that others could easily fall into the same trap that Mrs O did. It is an indictment on Bermuda’s system of care for the elderly that the best advice that could be given for Mrs O was to literally abandon her at the hospital, where authorities there would have to devise a care plan and take her in.It would be wrong to blame any single individual for this. It is to be hoped that the civil servants concerned with this case are caring people who are working in the field out of a sense of compassion and public service. If they are not, they need to be moved to some Government department where they don’t deal with people.But the more likely problem is that the bureaucracy and the nature of Government regulations leave the civil servants’ hands tied. The fact Mrs O has a life interest in a home and her shelter is therefore secured makes her ineligible for assistance is a nonsense. Apparently she has to be homeless as well as penniless to be able to get help.There is a common consensus that people receiving welfare should be genuinely in need. But it makes no sense that people in need, who need a hand up to get back on their feet, have to be a rock bottom before they can get help. Much better, surely, to intervene earlier and stop them from reaching the nadir.In Mrs O’s case, it is unlikely that she will recover from her illness, and at her age, any support she receives will have to last the rest of her life. But she, like any senior citizen, deserves to spend her last days in dignity and with some self-respect.She should not be sleeping in a diaper, on a chair, shivering under a single sheet without human contact and in a home where the doors must be locked to keep her in and where the fridge has to be locked to prevent her from gorging herself.Due to the efforts of her caregiver and One Bermuda Alliance MP Louise Jackson, Mrs O’s case has been made public and she is now getting some help.But how many other elderly people are living in the same conditions or worse with no one to speak for them? Bermuda must do better.