What needs to be done?
We fully support this legislation. Our elder abuse project and other cross-sectoral work that we are doing in Ontario has focused on the fstrategies that follow.
First, provide education for immigrants on what life in Canada is like for immigrants, including Canadian rights, freedoms, and laws, and also on what to expect with grandchildren growing up at home, financial restraints, and the justice system.
Also, there needs to be family counselling for all members of the family, delivered by South Asian counsellors, not mainstream counsellors.
As well, there needs to be more support for adult children caregivers, more support for South Asian programs for seniors, delivered by organizations like SSN, and more peer-to-peer support groups.
Elder abuse information needs to be provided to seniors in their own languages to educate them on what constitutes abuse, the consequences of abuse, and where they can go for help. There is a need for support programs that help health and social service providers and seniors themselves identify the signs of elder abuse, and for more sector-specific, cross-sectoral, culturally sensitive training.
There is a need for South Asian-specific emergency residential shelters and also a need to work on problems with the whole family, as well as a need for more funding for mental health services.
In summary, there is a need for education and support for seniors and families before and after the immigration process, for awareness training for front-line health and social service providers in identifying signs and symptoms, for culturally and linguistically sensitive family counselling programs, for cross-sectoral collaboration, and for more support for adult children and families.
In conclusion, the South Asian population is growing rapidly, and South Asians continue to remain one of the largest visible minority groups in Ontario as a whole. The population of Canada is also rapidly aging. In the York Region alone, by 2026 a 400% increase in seniors is projected.
These statistics, coupled with elder abuse stats, validate our inference that elder abuse is occurring in our communities at a comparable rate proportional to the mainstream population in Ontario—