Status of Women Committee on Oct. 27th, 2011

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

My question is actually regarding abuse, though, physical abuse. Would you agree with the statement that the abuse of elder women has a more severe impact than for people in their thirties or forties--physically--with regard to bone density and everything else that we talk about?

[Dr. Silvia Straka]

I'm a social worker, not a doctor or nurse.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

But in your opinion...? The point that I'm trying to get across is.... The witness we had in a prior committee, the national director for the Canadian Centre for Elder Law, was shocked, actually, and said what they found was that the age of the victim was rarely mentioned in terms of decisions about appropriate sentencing. That was the biggest surprise for us. The person from this centre was actually very concerned that age was not a factor in sentencing.

Actually, I would like to ask Dr. Beaulieu as well what her comments on that would be. Would you consider that a senior woman, being older in regard to physical health and well-being, would be a more vulnerable person compared to someone who is maybe in their thirties or forties and who is a victim of an abusive situation? Would you classify them as being vulnerable members of our society?

[Marie Beaulieu]

As I just said, the issue of vulnerability should always be put in parallel or balanced with risk factors.

I think what you're talking about are the possible issues of the loss of independence associated with aging. Right now, it's less a question of chronological age than a question of biopsychosocial conditions. We can put two 60-year-olds or 80-year-olds side by side and they will seem relatively different.

But you are focusing on something that I think is important. In situations where people are losing their independence…

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

I apologize for cutting you off, but time is of the essence here.

I just want to make mention--

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

I understood that you were sharing your time with Ms. Bateman.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Oh, okay.

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

There's one minute for Ms. Bateman to ask a question.

[Roxanne James, Conservative, Scarborough Centre, ON]

I apologize for that.

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

No worries.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Thank you.

Welcome to everyone.

Dr. Straka, you mentioned a couple of pieces that I will abbreviate. Je m'excuse.

You spoke of the complexity of health issues.

By the way, welcome from Manitoba.

Could you expand on that? I think that's an area we are starting to hear about from our witnesses in regard to the complexity, the difficulty that people have at a certain age with more complex issues.

You alluded to that in your comments. Could you expand, please?

[Dr. Silvia Straka]

It's hard to do that in one minute.

But I think that even without abuse we're looking at interventions with people in situations in which you may have an older couple with, as Dr. Beaulieu mentioned, other factors in the environment, either supportive factors, or problem factors that increase risk. Also, you're talking about cognitive, physical, and family issues and all of that.

These are very complex social work and health care interventions to begin with. When you add abuse and add a health care system that is not set up to intervene with abuse, you then have a situation that is incredibly complex.

I'm sorry that I can't speak more to it in the time we have.

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

We're past the time now.

Maybe, Dr. Straka, you will want to come back to touch on that point.

We will go to Ms. Borg and Ms. Freeman.

[Charmaine Borg, NDP, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Thank you very much for being here today. It's a pleasure to hear your presentations.

My first question is for Ms. Beaulieu.

I know you are somewhat familiar with the situation of the residential and long-term care centres in Quebec. You know that there is a lack of standards governing the care offered in private and public facilities. Do you think one way to resolve the problem would be to adopt standards in the long-term care facilities?

[Marie Beaulieu]

You are touching on a complex problem, in other words the issue of housing for older people where public services are increasingly reduced and there are more and more private residences that offer housing, care and services to seniors.

Quebec is currently certifying these various facilities so that they have minimum standards. This certification process is taking much longer than expected.

But I fully agree with you that there is a real need to have quality services in all facilities, whether they are public or private, to ensure that we are properly meeting the needs of seniors.

I think preventing abuse is not just a matter of the quality of care. It's much more global. It's about quality of life in those environments.

[Charmaine Borg, NDP, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Exactly.

My second question is also for you, Ms. Beaulieu.

One of the reasons why the provinces can't receive federal funding under the Canada Health Act is that care for seniors is not considered medically necessary.

Should we improve or change that?

[Marie Beaulieu]

You are touching on a fundamental point. I think the loss of independence, so all the degenerative illnesses that may occur in the aging process, is a well-documented reality, not only in geriatrics, but in social gerontology as well. I think considering the eventual need for care for seniors is a fundamental issue.

At the same time, since I'm from a social background, I wouldn't want us to consider abuse only as a medical problem. There are biopsychosocial components and the psychosocial is really crucial when it comes to intervention because assistance more often comes through the psychosocial aspect than the medical one.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

Thank you very much, Ms. Beaulieu.

I have questions for Dr. Straka.

You talked about older persons' empowerment. How can we bring empowerment to elders as a harm reduction approach, as opposed to something such as criminalizing, etc.?

[Dr. Silvia Straka]

One of the things I mentioned is that we need to hear more from older women themselves, from groups that represent older women.

The second thing is that while I very much appreciate the concern with protecting—that has to be there, because for some of these older women there are some very important vulnerabilities—we also have to be very concerned to balance that with not thinking that we can always protect them. Their wishes may be to make choices that put them into situations of risk, and that's every woman's choice to make, assuming that she has the cognitive capacity to do so.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

Right. So we are talking about not stigmatizing the victim—and the perpetrator, who may be a family member.

[Dr. Silvia Straka]

I am also talking about the ageism that permeates our society, even in the health care services. There is research documenting it.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

How can we do that? What kinds of services can we offer for that?

[Dr. Silvia Straka]

I'm not sure specifically which services, but it's about the principles by which we provide services and the ways we understand the complexity of that tension between protection and empowerment. In some situations it's going to go more towards one side, and in other situations more to the other.

This is something social workers face in their everyday practice with aging. We're the ones who will advocate more for the empowerment side. It's often a very difficult situation to be in.

[Mylène Freeman, NDP, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

Thank you.

I have a quick question for

…Ms. Beaulieu.

Can the age-friendly cities movement and other similar initiatives help reduce the abuse of seniors? Would they give seniors more independence?

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

You have 20 seconds to respond.