With pleasure.
Madam Chair, committee members, thank you for inviting me to discuss the issue of the abuse of seniors, particularly older women.
I think you are looking at a major social issue, considering two fundamental aspects. Obviously, there is the aging population of Canada, which is very important, and the growing recognition of the abuse of seniors, which comes as a result of work that initially focused more on violence toward children and spousal abuse.
I would like to talk to you about how the abuse of older women is different from those two major areas.
I'll introduce myself very quickly, which will help you understand where I'm coming from. I'm a criminologist by training, a professor in social gerontology and social work at the Université de Sherbrooke, but for the past year, I have also been a research chair on the abuse of seniors. This research chair is funded by the Quebec government's department of the family, seniors and the status of women.
According to Gloria Gutman, president of the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse—or INPEA—it's the only chair of its kind in the world. So I'm basing my comments today on 25 years of research, during which I have worked closely in the areas of practice and have very relevant experience because I have worked with the Government of Quebec as a scientific expert in developing the Governmental Action Plan to Counter Elder Abuse, the plan for 2010 to 2015.
In the next few minutes, I would like to discuss five points that I feel are fundamental for continuing your work. These are things you have already started working on, I'm sure, but I will shed new light on them.
My first point is the issue of gender. It is recognized demographically that there are more women than men because women have a longer life expectancy than men. So the fact that you would choose to focus more specifically on women is entirely justified from that perspective.
We also know that some specific forms of abuse are linked to gender. So they are going to require interventions that are also gender-specific. I'm thinking of a conference I attended just last Saturday morning when I was in Ottawa. It was for the Canadian Association on Gerontology. Someone from Mexico talked to us about the age of abused seniors. The youngest older women, so women who were between 60 and 70 years of age, were more often the victims of spousal abuse than the older women. This was explained by the fact that the spouse was still alive, whereas later on, the spouse had died.
I think it is very important to take an interest in the abuse of women, not only in the spouse or family environment, but also more generally.
I'll come to my second point—trusting relationships—in a minute. We must not lose sight that older women, like all older people, are not a homogenous group and focusing on older women means taking into account the particularities aside from chronological age, such as the person's life, socio-economic conditions and access to services.
We must also not fall into the trap of focusing only on people we feel are objectively more vulnerable, because it has been clearly shown in the study of abuse that, on one hand, there is the vulnerability of the victim—their own characteristics—and on the other, the issue of risk factors associated with the environment. The abuser is often part of that network. So it's important to take a balanced look at the vulnerability of the victim and the risk factors to realize that in some cases we may have someone who is very vulnerable but who will never be abused because that person's environment doesn't present any risk factors. Meanwhile someone who would objectively be not very vulnerable or not vulnerable at all could be abused because the environment presents risk factors.
My second point involves understanding the abuse in all its forms. Very often we use the definition of the WHO, which includes both violence and negligence in a trust-based relationship. We also say that abuse causes harm and distress to seniors. As you know, the issue of abuse is an umbrella, or global, concept that includes both spousal abuse, which ages with the couple, and family relationship issues. For example, there may be an adult child with social problems who lives with a parent. To some degree, it may be very helpful to the older mother, but it may also become very abusive at times. It is very interesting to see that the son or daughter may depend on the older mother.
So in addition to the issue of abuse at home that we are talking a lot about, we must not lose sight of the abuse of older women in seniors' residences, which is often less studied because it is harder to have access to. Older people in those residences are people who are the least independent. They are mostly older women.
My third point is at the heart of my presentation. I'm talking about the importance of measures relating to the extent of this phenomenon of abuse. Last Friday, we attended a seminar in Ottawa where we presented the results of a first national study, conducted in French and English, that measured the scope of abuse toward older people, at home and in seniors' residences. I think that Ms. Lynn McDonald had the opportunity to talk to you about it last week.
I was responsible for the francophone component. We now have a questionnaire that is ready to be administered. It is important to fully understand the situation, but we often—and I would say unfortunately—have to provide numbers to draw attention to the fact that people are being abused. The two population studies that we used to provide approximate data on the extent of this phenomenon are fairly old. The first dates from the 1980s. It shows that at least 4% of seniors living at home are abused by their family. The second, which was done as part of the General Social Survey, so by Statistics Canada, in the late 1990s, reveals that the proportion had reached 7%. So those two studies show us just the tip of the iceberg, given that only seniors able to answer the telephone could answer the questions. That means that someone who could not answer the telephone, someone who was less independent or who was near the abuser, could not answer.
If these 7% are just the tip of the iceberg, it's time we collected some new data. In the questionnaire that we proposed to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, we clearly showed that it is important to use objective and subjective measures in the case of abuse. For example, if we ask people if they feel neglected, they might say no, but for specific questions, such as whether they have received all the help they need to take a bath or go to the bathroom, they say they haven't received that help. In other words, there is a dichotomy between what people experience and what they feel. So it's important to show the objective and subjective aspects of victimization.
My fourth point deals with the importance of the impact of abuse on the lives of seniors. An American study showed that abused individuals die at a much younger age and have more illnesses than others. It would be important to find out whether the situation is the same in Canada, so to properly measure the repercussions of this abuse.
My last point is about the role of the federal government. Canada has 13 jurisdictions: 10 provinces and three territories. What can bring us together is criminal law, but also reflection on the conditions that may be connected to financial transfers to the provinces. I think it's important that each province take into account the situation of the abuse of older women and that this results in not only political statements but also implementation, which will allow us to follow up in this area.
Thank you.