Forum on Elder Abuse

2 of my Estate Services Coordinators attended an education session this week on Elder Abuse and prepared this summary for our company blog.  I wanted to also post it on my Active Rain Blog.  I have no comments, my employees speak well on their own behalf.

On Wednesday, March 4^th Cathy Gordon and Allyson James, both Estate Services Coordinators at Gordon's Estate Services attended the Forum on Elder Abuse.

We enjoyed 3 diverse speakers. Judith Wahl, Director Advocacy Centre for The Elderly, and Arlene Groh from the Waterloo Region Committee on Elder Abuse, both spoke to us about the importance of setting up a network of services to support seniors. Each of these women was instrumental in setting up and working within these service centres in their areas.  They talked about the various issues that seniors encounter, and reinforced that we all are responsible for making sure these issues are brought into awareness and that there is a system in place so that the seniors can get support and assistance.  Systemic, Power Of Attorney, physical, sexual, financial, neglect and metal abuse are all forms of abuse. 

Detective Cathie Griffin, Seniors Crime Investigator with the Elder Abuse Initiative in the Halton Region, spoke to us from her first hand experience dealing with calls from relatives, friends, neighbours, or seniors themselves reporting signs of some kind of abuse.  She was extremely informative about our responsibilities to these people. We need to give seniors information on where they can get assistance, and in all cases listen to what they have to say.  Don`t ever assume what they are saying isn`t true. Dig deeper and find out what`s happening. 

This is a very real and very scary subject.  We would all like to think that this doesn`t happen, and especially doesn`t happen in our community, but unfortunately it does.  Unlike the incidence of child abuse, where all citizens are compelled legally to report even suspected abuse, there is no such legislation regarding abuse of senior adults. We need to create awareness and we need to provide a safe environment so seniors who are dealing with any form of abuse can talk to someone they trust and get assistance. 

The forum was a building block for Southeastern Ontario trying to get professionals and seniors together in a room and learn what services we have available in our region and what we can do to build on this.   All seniors need to be treated with honesty, compassion and with a great deal of respect!  We hope that this movement continues to move forward and that Southeastern Ontario builds a strong group of care and support workers to help victims of all forms of abuse.