The government of Canada has recently launched an anti-elder abuse ad campaign, the anti-elder abuse ad can be here. In the last newsletter we asked readers if they had seen the ad and surveyed them on their impressions. Our findings would be that the vast majority of our readers had seen the ads and while 21% thought they would help prevent elder abuse, most either didn’t know or thought they would not help.
While there were 10% who called for more initiatives to improve awareness via Public Service Annoucements such as the ad, the overwhelming majority wanted specific action to start dealing with elder abuse, not more research or awareness. They wanted to see places where they could get help for themselves or for others.
This is in keeping with the responses to an earlier survey in which people are willing to intervene but wanted some agency in place to whom they could report the abuse and that agency would take action. The earlier poll results can be found here.
All in all this survey as well as other feedback we have received seems to indicate that CARP members want to see less talk and more action. They want to see evidence that any of the research has produced tangible results. They are NOT looking for the perfect protocol for setting up a shelter for abused seniors, they just want shelters with adequate standards, and help lines and protection agencies.
As a side note, our survey showed a prevalence rate that is very similar to that among the available published research. So there’s no appetite and no need for further research to see how much elder abuse is going on perhaps reflecting the sentiment that one case is one too many.
