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Elder abuse strategy is not perfect, but it is a start: Kelleppan

SAIF saw nine intakes for elder abuse last month, nearly double the four-or five-per-month average.
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From left: Shantel Ottenbreit, chair of Alberta Elder Abuse Awareness Council, Areni Kelleppan, executive director of Stop Abuse in Families Society, Minister of Seniors and Housing, Josephine Pon, and Michele Markham, manager of Seniors Safe House, SAGE Seniors Association. Pon announced the strategy for elder abuse on July 19, 2022. GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA/Photo

The strategy for elder abuse announced by the province July 20 is great, said Areni Kelleppan, executive director for Stop Abuse in Families (SAIF), but agencies can’t enact it without funding.

“There is no sustainable, critical core funding for elder abuse, and every year for us it's on the chopping block,” she said.

On July 19, the Minister of Seniors and Housing, Josephine Pon, announced a five-year strategy for preventing and addressing elder abuse.

“This new strategy guide outlines how we can all work together to help to stop elder abuse before it happens. To begin, we have defined the issue. We consulted with a stakeholder, experts, and service providers, and then asked all Albertans to give their input on what elder abuse actually looks like,” said Pon.

The strategy has five goals that include: improving awareness about elder abuse; coordinating community responses; legislating laws and policies to protect seniors; enhancing data, information sharing, research, and evaluation; and training service providers.

Financial abuse is one of the most common forms of abuse, said Pon.

“The new strategy includes working with financial services providers, and other frontline professionals to inform them how to stop and respond to this type of abuse,” said Pon.

SAIF, which serves St. Albert, Sturgeon County, and some areas of Parkland County, was one of the many agencies to take part in defining the goals for the strategy, as well as defining what elder abuse actually is.

Elder abuse is now defined, according to a press release from the province, as, “any intentional or reckless act or wilful and negligent disregard, occurring within a relationship of family, trust or dependency, directed at someone 65 years of age or older, that causes physical harm; causes emotional or psychological harm; involves the misappropriation or misuse of money or other personal possessions or personal or real property; subjects an individual to non-consensual sexual contact, activity, or behaviour, or fails to provide the necessities of life.”

Kelleppan said the strategy has its flaws, but noted the five goals identified in the strategy are the most pressing issues.

“It's not perfect, but nothing is, and if you wait for things to be perfect, then you do nothing," she said. "Right now, we need action."

Funding, however, is critical.

“The strategy is one thing; we would have liked to have seen funding attached to it. We have been told that that may come — that is in the works,” said Kelleppan.

The strategy highlights coordinated community responses, which is something Kelleppan said SAIF has. The organization works with a number of “community collaborators” including medical professionals, the RCMP, Victim Services, and other agencies.

“But we can't do it without money… (The strategy) needs money to be attached to it, because it cannot continue to be done on the backs of these small communities,” said Kelleppan.

During the last two years, SAIF has “cobbled money together” from the different municipalities they support in the region, the federal government, and other organizations like the United Way and the Red Cross Community Foundation.

Core funding for a program specifically for elder abuse would cost SAIF around $42,000 per year to run, said Kelleppan.

According to the province, prior to 2020 it was estimated that Alberta had the highest percentage of elder abuse in Canada, with nearly one in 10 Albertan seniors experienced elder abuse.

The population of seniors in Alberta has doubled to more than 700,000 since the previous strategy, which was made more than 10 years ago.

Kelleppan said SAIF has had a significant number of elder-abuse calls for the region. In 2020, SAIF served 92 families, and served 89 families in 2021.

“I will say right now, we are probably very close to that (2021) number, we had nine intakes alone in the last month. (The number of intakes) goes up and down monthly. Usually you have about four, on average, or five, but we hit nine last month, and that's a lot,” said Kellappan.

That number is concerning for Kellappan, but she is happy people are calling in and reporting.

“Seniors often don't report their own abuse, it is concerned friends, family, and neighbours who report abuse,” she said.

The key message, said Kelleppan, is to report if you are concerned about a senior — reporting can be done anonymously. Another important facet she highlighted is the need to check in with each other.

“A lot of our seniors, certainly in the past two years, have been isolated. The programming that would bring them out in the community and would offer them transportation and mobility has been paused or is not available because of COVID," she said. "When you check in on a senior, it's critical. It's a lifeline for many."

“The isolation, the lack of connection with people, the lack of people reporting, is a perfect breeding ground for abusers to continue to abuse, and we don't want that.”

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