Madam Chair and committee members, thank you very much for the opportunity to present to you today to share our views from Nova Scotia and some thoughts about what can be done to further address the issue of abuse of older women.
The Nova Scotia elder abuse strategy, which we put out in 2005, talks about the different kinds of abuse that people have experienced, the harm they have experienced from all sorts of people. If you fail to act on this, then their heath, their whole well-being, and sometimes their lives are in danger. This action or inaction is especially harmful when it occurs in a relationship where there is the expectation of trust.
I won't go over the different kinds of abuse, because that's in the report. That will save some time, and I know you're all familiar with them anyway.
It's very difficult for us to say how many older persons are abused, neglected, or exploited in Nova Scotia, in part because there's still a lack of awareness of what elder abuse really is. Sometimes this abuse has gone on for a very long time, and in certain cases people begin to feel this is the way their life is.
We've been doing a lot to talk about the awareness and to make people more aware of abuse, but it very much remains a hidden problem.
The best information indicates that between 4% and 10% of older adults experience abuse. If you translate that to Nova Scotia, it would mean that approximately 5,000 to 13,000 older people experience harm and poor health or well-being because of abuse. Because it's so severely under-reported, it's believed that this number is far greater. I was a social worker with family and children's services, and I honestly don't think it's any different: I think abuse goes through the generations and remains hidden.
As in other jurisdictions, of course because women live longer than men, naturally there is a larger group of women who are being abused. The sheer numbers of our demographic means that it's becoming a larger issue. According to the 2006 census, of approximately 138,000 Nova Scotians over the age of 65, 78,000 are women. That's 57% of our senior population.
As I said, it's often hidden. It takes place within family relationships, and it is very much shaped by generational experiences. What we see a lot of the time is this entitlement that older adult children feel. I hope I have a chance to tell you a story that's close to me about a lady who lives across the street--they basically can't wait for her to die. There's some serious abuse taking place there.
Of course, a lot of older women don't want to report abuse because it is done by adult children or their spouses and they fear losing those relationships. For a lot of seniors who were at home raising their families, that has been their whole life, and to separate from those relationships is a huge issue for them.
They have the same opinions in Newfoundland. I think a lot of the older seniors aren't comfortable in the transition homes where there are younger people and children. There's obviously some success, but I know there are some transition houses specifically for older seniors, and that seems to have worked really well.
Also, of course, people are afraid of retaliation.
As well, a lot of older women feel guilty. If their adult child is abusing them, they feel that maybe it's their fault, that maybe it's something they did. As mothers, I think, we always seem to say that maybe it's something we did, and I don't think that changes as we age. So that makes it a sort of a double whammy there for someone to come out and report themselves.
Of course, because of having fewer financial resources, a lot of older women can be even more greatly affected by financial abuse.
We know also that women are more likely to have disabling conditions. They live longer than men and so they're more at risk of injury, and they're often likely to be caregivers to husbands with dementia.
Sometimes violence in a younger couple can grow old along with them.
It may also start in retirement, when changes take place in the different roles that people play. Spousal violence can begin in a relationship at any age, I guess, when people grow older, with the stresses and strains that people often feel. So it is the significant aging of our population that will increase the proportion of seniors needing support and also increase the need for people to step up and understand that this is a concern for all of us, that it's everyone's concern.
We need to take a look at everything we can possibly do to support seniors who are being abused. One of the things we've done in Nova Scotia is to develop--in 2005--a strategy for positive aging. I brought some reports with me, and if you want them, you're welcome to have them. That really was done to position us as a province that was starting to look at innovative solutions to the challenges associated with population aging.
More than a thousand Nova Scotians were consulted. The strategy contains nine goals and 190 societal actions. Again, we particularly addressed it that way when we went out to the consultations: that government can't do everything and that every one of us has a role to play in order to make sure that people age successfully.
The nine goals in the strategy for positive aging are: celebrating seniors; financial security; health and well-being; maximizing independence; housing options; transportation; respecting diversity; employment and life transitions; and supportive communities. This strategy serves as our framework for responding to seniors issues, including abuse. We build our yearly business plan around that.
Also in that same year, we released the Nova Scotia elder abuse strategy. This provides direction and leadership to all partners in preventing and addressing the abuse of seniors. It was meant to be a five-year strategy. We are reviewing that now. It outlined four strategic areas: education and awareness; prevention of financial abuse; community-based networks; and resources and support. A review of progress is under way.
We also started a toll-free senior abuse line. We have adult protection in the province, but ever since I've been involved—since 1980—the adult protection legislation deals only with seniors who are unable to look after themselves or who would be considered incompetent. Believe me, there are many people who are very competent but because of abuse just do not have the wherewithal to make a change. We receive approximately 200 calls per year on that line, and roughly 70% of all calls are concerned with either potential abuse or neglect of an older woman.
We also have a network for the prevention of senior abuse. This network is composed of government, community, and academic partners and is led by the Department of Seniors. That network fosters collaboration and provides leadership across those stakeholder groups in an effort to put more supports at the grassroots level.
There has been some wonderful work done at the federal-provincial-territorial level. We worked together with our colleagues on the prevention of elder abuse, especially financial abuse, on the safety and security working group, which that produced the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day kits, the eight brochures on financial literacy, and the TV ads. At this time, the working group is focused on a collaborative project with other stakeholders to ensure that seniors are better informed in order to protect themselves from financial abuse.
We support senior safety programs in Nova Scotia, which were started by the RCMP. We provide them with a maximum of $20,000 to encourage those programs--they use a community development model--to work with and to visit seniors in their own homes.
Each year on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, we support eight to 15 projects. They have been funded to make people at the local area level more aware of activities that support seniors and to create further awareness.
Through partnering with the public legal information service in Nova Scotia, we have created a legal information package for seniors, which is called “It's in Your Hands: Legal Information for Seniors and their Families”. The Department of Seniors has already funded two extra printings of that book so more seniors can have access to it.