Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Tomorrow, June 15th, is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. I would like to thank all Members in the House who are wearing purple for doing that in recognition of tomorrow. Elder abuse is a significant threat to the residents of all of our communities. For many years elder abuse has been a private matter, hidden from view and not talked about. Thanks to a significant public education campaign, elder abuse has become a much more higher profile in our society. It is seen as a national problem needing attention.
The NWT Seniors’ Society has been advocating tirelessly to change the situation. As a result of their efforts, elder abuse is getting the recognition it deserves. The GNWT and the public have a better understanding of the magnitude of the problem.
Elder abuse is defined as any kind of physical, sexual, psychological or financial abuse, as well as neglect. Abuse happens when family members extort money from their elders or force them to sign over property.
All elders, male and female, are at risk for abuse as they are easy targets because of physical frailty or, in some cases, diminished mental capacity. Our elders should be respected and honoured. They hold the wisdom, the history and the knowledge of our communities and our territory. We cannot ignore elder abuse, and understanding it gives us the power to fight it.
What’s needed is for society to recognize that elder abuse and neglect does exist and to raise our awareness of the problem. We need to inform health and social service practitioners about elder abuse, ensure that everyone can identify the signs of elder abuse and that they know where to find help. We need to use the media to change attitudes and to reduce stereotyping of the elderly, and we need to educate our elders as well. All of these actions help to bring the problem of elder abuse out into the open, to acknowledge that it’s a problem and then we can start to eradicate it.
In the long term our government must give a higher profile to elders and start to consider elders as a cohort of their own, gather statistical data for elders and fund elders as a distinct segment of our society, much as we do for youth, but paramount is the need to fund a separate program whose aim is to reduce and eliminate abuse of older adults. At the moment, funding comes under the umbrella of a Family Violence Action Plan. Funding for elders needs to be separated out and funded on its own, within the Family Violence Action Plan perhaps, but funded as a separate line item.
In closing, this is Senior Citizens Week in the NWT and I hope all Members take action sometime this week to show their respect for NWT elders. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
