Handbook helps those suffering from elder abuse find assistance

By KENDALL KING, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on January 21, 2022.

kking@medicinehatnews.com

Alberta’s Elder Abuse Awareness Council has released a safety handbook which aims to inform older adults about resources available to them, specifically adults who may be experiencing abuse.

“The Alberta Elder Abuse Awareness Council recognized that we don’t have a lot of resources available for people who might be experiencing elder abuse or might know of a loved one who’s experiencing it,” Shantel Ottenbreit, chair of the AEAAC, told the News. “So, what we thought is we’d create a handbook, so they could get some information about the key areas they need to be thinking about if they’re concerned for their safety or are experiencing elder abuse and need assistance.”

Elder abuse rates have risen since the beginning of the pandemic, says Ottenbreit, however determining an exact prevalence rate is difficult as it sometimes goes unreported.

“It’s something which is very shameful and difficult to talk about because most often – around 90 per cent of the time – elder abuse cases are perpetrated by a family member (like) a spouse or an adult child or a grandchild,” said Ottenbreit. “Between that, as well as not having specifically identified services in a lot of communities where people can go and access help; it means accessing help through police, which people are very hesitant to do.

“The national prevalence rate suggests it’s about 8.9 percent of all older adults experience one or more forms of abuse in a given year.”

Alberta sits just above that, at 9 percent, as of 2015.

“That’s quite significant when we look across Alberta at our aging population,” she said.

Abuse can take multiple different forms, including financial abuse, emotional/psychological abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, medication abuse and neglect.

Ottenbreit and the AEAAC hope the safety handbook will provide individuals with additional information about the types of abuse and help them navigate getting assistance.

“It’s a great resource, for not only older adults, but also family members and friends to take a look through,” she said. “We’re really trying to think of different ways to keep our older adults safe and provide them with support and resources.”

Staying Safe: A Resource for Older Adults Living in Alberta is currently available for free online on the AEAAC website but will soon become available in print and audio formats.

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