Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to share our observations with this justice committee for its elder abuse study.
My name is Tehmina Naveed. I am the executive director of Pak Pioneers Community Organization of Canada, which serves the community on the whole and the South Asian community especially for the past 10 years. We focus on helping seniors of South Asian origin stay connected with people of their age group and prevent social isolation. For this purpose, we have established an older adults group called the Senior Pioneers Club. We are based in Mississauga and serve the GTA, including the Milton and Brampton areas.
During our involvement with the community, we have organized many seminars, workshops and lectures on elder abuse prevention and published a documentary short film on YouTube to make as many elders as possible aware of the signs of elder abuse and who to contact for help. During our short time period of serving the community, we have been indirectly informed by the people about any victims of abuse and have shared contact information with them to get them the help they need.
There are many differences between the South Asian and the Canadian cultures when it comes to the parents' expectations of their children. The South Asian parents expect their children to take full responsibility for caring for them in their old age, as they have educated and fully financially supported them in their younger age. However, when the children sponsor their parents to come to Canada to live with them, the seniors go through cultural shock. They are not very fluent in the English language, and become dependent on their children, especially when dealing with the banks or any other government departments. Their basic rights and needs are often neglected, and they are made to feel like burdens on their own children.
Older adults are dependent on their children when it comes to the financial management of their wealth because they may not have access to their bank accounts directly or are unable to use online banking, so either their children or some relative manage their accounts. That's how they misuse the funds for themselves, thus financially abusing the parents. We have come to know of a few seniors complaining that they just get $100 or maybe a couple of hundred dollars for their monthly expenses out of their old age benefits or pensions. The rest of the amount is taken by the children because they say, “We are keeping you in our house. We are taking care of you. We are giving you food and other necessities of life, so you don't need any extra money for yourself.”
When older adults face fraud or some financial scam, they do not know where to go or whom to complain to due to lack of awareness, which causes depression and a lot of stress, which leads to poor mental health. A majority of the victims of fraud and scams do not tell any of their family members, as they feel embarrassed and ashamed. The justice system takes a lot of time, which means that the seniors will have more stress knowing that their money is all gone, which worsens their health conditions and may lead to their ending up in hospital. The person who has lost all that money because of the fraud is usually in great need of money, and they must wait a long time for justice to be done. To help prevent all this from happening, we must work on getting justice delivered faster so that seniors don't end up in hospital and don't face more emotional stress and declining mental health.
It has also been observed in the South Asian community that seniors who are living with their children are not usually allowed by the children to go out on their own, especially in the winter, as they may have an accident or may slip and fall. Then the children would have to bear the medical expenses or have to take care of the parents, which is an extra liability on them with their work and their responsibility for their children. It's very hard for them to do that, and they end up restricting them to inside the house. As the older adults are dependent on their children, their children usually make the seniors babysit their kids full-time and/or ask them to pick up and drop off the children. For this, they have to stay at home all the time and cannot go out to meet friends, socialize or network with other people. This also makes them feel isolated.
Seniors are also experiencing physical abuse and sexual abuse, but the South Asian seniors do not report sexual abuse or even share that with anyone, not even their friends, as they are ashamed of it due to cultural barriers. This is also why we do not have exact numbers and data, as many are not comfortable disclosing this information. We work to connect them with the organizations that are working professionally in this field.
Our organization would suggest that the government make policies to ensure a safe environment within elder care facilities and individual seniors homes by providing financial support and by establishing seniors homes that are focused on specific ethnic communities to serve visible minority groups and provide culturally sensitive services. This will also help reduce some of the fear that has been instilled in the seniors by their children—of the abuse they would face in these homes—which leads to them further tolerating various forms of abuse within their respective homes.
Thank you so much.