Aging is part of living

On Monday, June 15, several associations gathered to mark World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 2009. Kiosks representing community partners were installed to counsel people on how to recognize abuse and how to react to it. The meeting took place in Hampstead, where seniors aged 75 years and older are more numerous than anywhere else on the island of Montreal.

“Elder abuse is very under reported; it can be physical, financial, psychological and sexual,” explained Barylak. She added that “a lot of stigma is attached to admitting abuse because, all too often, it comes from a family member.”

“Abuse can take place at home or in public institutions and the CSSS Cavendish’s objective is to empower people to understand their behaviour,” said Joanne Besner, program manager for CSSS Cavendish. “When we hear about a person being abused we start with a whole evaluation of the situation with no pre-judgement, to understand exactly the relationships and the pressures involved,” she explained.

Minister Marguerite Blais, responsible for seniors, attended the media event. After a brief walk in Pierre-Elliot-Trudeau Park, she stated: “We need to deal with this together; it’s a question of community." There is a lack of respect towards seniors and they are feeling alone.”

Next fall, she will submit a government plan that will require nine ministers to work in the same direction and around three main areas: prevention, detection and intervention. Yet, she explained that the provincial government can’t solve this problem alone, and that society also has to act.

People can warn about a senior being abused by calling an info line, created in 1996. That line receives about 1,500 calls a year, according to Sarita Israel, a social worker from the CSSS Cavendish. “What’s mostly reported is financial abuse, because it’s the easiest to recognize, she explained. The more signs you need, the harder it is to detect.” The most frequent abuse is psychological, because it’s usually accompanied by every other form of abuse.

“Abuse is about control and power,” explains Israel. According to her, young people must be taught “to recognize that aging is part of living.”

In NDG, 5% of seniors have admitted to having experienced some form of abuse, according to Daphne Nahmiash, from the NDGCCEA (NDG Community Committee on Elder Abuse). “Mainly we focus on prevention. For example we go into low-income housing a lot,” said Nahmiash. “We found out that about 30% of the people there are vulnerable; not only to abuse, but also to isolation and depression,” she said.

There were a few cases in NDG of people who died in low-income housing and nobody found out right away, which is why Nahmiash decided to focus on these housing units. “Isolation is one of the main causes of abuse, so my idea was to get people more active, meet their neighbours, etc.,” she explained.

Nahmiash also participated in the Hear our Voices program: “We interview people and each person has a page in the book so you bring out who the person really is. At the end, each of them gets a book and learns about the others.”

But the afternoon wasn’t all about information. There was a short demonstration of forum theatre by RECAA (Ressources Ethnoculturelles contre l’abus envers les aîné(e)s). “We use forum theatre because when you are empowering people, it often allows them to find the solutions,” said Mayda Mekerian, activities coordinator. Through forum theatre, people are shown an instance of elder abuse and have to find solutions to make it stop. “We also make a link between the people that are there and the services available,” explained Mekerian. The demonstration lasted 30 minutes and was very much appreciated by those in the audience.

Before leaving, people received a copy of the Seniors’ Community Notebook, a publication spearheaded by the NDGCCEA. In a little over 20 pages, this bilingual notebook offers valuable information about aging, as well as provides community resources and helpful tips.

Info line : 1-888-489-ABUS

NDGCCEA : (514) 483-1380 ext 2016

CSSS Cavendish : (514) 484-7878

RECAA : (514) 528-8812