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Shelter
Needs of Abused Older Women
Key Findings
and Recommendations
- Abuse of older women is not well understood
or acknowledged by society as a whole. This lack of understanding permeates
all aspects of our culture, starting with young children and extending into
their adult years. It is due,
in part, to the role and status of women in our society as well as a
negative view of aging that tends to pervade our culture.
Abused older women have internalized these messages and blame
themselves for their abuse. Older women are more likely to suffer financial
and emotional abuse and neglect rather than physical abuse. While there has
been some progress made in bringing public attention to the negative
consequences of wife assault, many older women do not think of themselves as
abused unless they are physically abused. Therefore, many abused older women
remain silent. This "cultural taboo" prevents women for asking for
help.
Recommendation 1: That
the Government of Ontario, building on its existing Violence Against Women
public education strategy and other initiatives such as Seniors’ Month and
the Initiative for Vulnerable Adults, invest
resources in a multi-pronged social marketing strategy that promotes a
positive image of older women, increases awareness and educates the public
about the abuse of older women, its causes, social costs, and remedies.
This strategy needs to take into account the various target groups that
exist for the messages and the different venues for getting the messages out
including young children and schools, intergenerational initiatives, various
print, audio visual and ethnoracial media.
Recommendation 2: That, since 1999 is the International Year of
Older Persons, government ministries be directed to focus on the issue of
abuse of older women in their educational, intergenerational and related
initiatives. Areas of government
with a major interest in these issues are:
The Ontario Women’s Directorate, the Seniors’ Secretariat, the
Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation, the
Ministry of Community and Social Services, the Ministry of the Attorney
General and the Ministry of Education and Training.
-
Abused
older women go to their families, friends and/or cultural or faith
communities first for help.
Cultural groups and faith communities often have supports and services
available for members experiencing difficulties. Sometimes these groups
reinforce the prevailing ideas described above. They suggest that they
should put up with the situation for the good of the family. Even so, women
still will turn them first.
Recommendation 3: That, to ensure that the messages about abuse of
older women are received, heard and internalized by the diverse communities in
Ontario , the Government of Ontario involve representatives from various
cultural and faith communities as well
as older women themselves in the design, development and production of its
social marketing strategy.
-
Abused older
women seek help in many different ways
. They may seek help from
mainstream services if they are concerned about confidentiality or stigma.
Sometimes when they try to access these services they encounter barriers.
Abused older women also seek help indirectly. This way the taboo is not
broken. Sometimes, when older women speak about their abuse, they are not
believed. Many physicians, social worker and community faith and cultural
group members do not recognize signs of abuse of older women or are not sure
where to get help for women who do disclose abuse. If an abused older women
finally decides to ask for help and encounters disbelief, lack of skill or
information, she may never try again.
Recommendation 4: That
training and education on
preventing, detecting, assessing and addressing the abuse of older women be
provided to front line workers in community based agencies, women’s services
and seniors’ services including CCACs, Long Term Care facilities, home
support services and peer support programs.
Further , that curricula currently in place to train volunteers and
professionals , including teachers, nurses, physicians, social workers,
cultural interpreters and others be reviewed and enhanced to include materials
on preventing, detecting and addressing the abuse of older women.
- A major gap in services is the lack of
information, coordination and integration of the services that exist. In
the area of abuse of older women, no one is taking the lead. Rather, many
different groups and organizations provide services to abused older women as
part of their other mandated services. There
also does not appear to be effective interface between the women's services
and senior's sectors. As women age, they become involved in the seniors'
service sector where a feminist analyst and woman-centered approach to
service is less evident. at the same time, women's shelter staff lack
expertise in the area of aging and the special health and personal needs of
older women. Many communities have distinct Violence Against Women Networks
and Elder Abuse Committees. It is not clear if these groups have cross
representation or are even working closely together. When a situation of
abuse of an older women comes to light, it is sometimes also not clear who
is responsible for which piece of the solution, or who is going to stand
beside the woman to make sure the issues are all addressed appropriately.
Recommendation 5: That all existing services in the areas of
violence against women ,long term care, seniors’ services and other places
that may come in contact with abused older women
be mandated to address their needs so that women who access the system
at various entry points can be assisted to break the cycles of violence they
find themselves in.
Recommendation 6: That
local communities be encouraged to develop long range plans for addressing
the needs of abused older women that include developing comprehensive,
coordinated, integrated community wide response models that are able to
quickly and effectively address needs of abused older women in their
communities. That wherever
local Violence Against Women Networks or Elder Abuse Committees already
exist, they jointly develop the coordinated community response.
The response should be grounded in commonly developed values and
principles respecting the older woman’s right to choice, self
determination and autonomy. That
the Government of Ontario support communities in these efforts with
appropriate resources.
Recommendation 7: That abused older women themselves be intimately
involved in the development of coordinated community responses so that their
perspectives are incorporated.
Recommendation 8: That, in addition to other key community
stakeholder groups, the shelters and other violence against women services
play an active role in the development of coordinated community responses so that their woman centred approach and expertise
on violence against women is reflected in the model.
- Within a more coordinated community
response, shelters have a role in addressing the safety needs of abused
older women.
Shelters are currently not serving very many women over 55.
Some women do not know about shelters. Others would never think about
leaving their home and family. There are physical, cultural and/or
linguistic barriers in many shelters that make it hard for abused older
women to receive appropriate services. However, rectifying these barriers
will not necessarily mean greater number of abused older women will use
shelters. The concerns that service providers identify around the difficulty
older women might have living with younger women and children in shelters
was not as big as concern for women themselves. Safe shelter can mean more
than typical VAW shelters. It can mean safe homes, beds in retirement homes
or speedy access to senior's subsidized housing and their types of second
stage housing. This study did not find sufficient reason to establish
separate facility for abused older women.
Recommendation 9: That the Ministry of Community and Social Services
ensure that shelters in Ontario are accessible to and inclusive of all women
seeking their services. That changes be made to their facilities and
services to minimize barriers for women related to age, cultural and
linguistic backgrounds, physical and developmental disabilities and mental
health concerns.
Recommendation 10: That shelters in Ontario fulfill their mandate to
serve all women, including abused older women by facilitating access to safe
shelter for those who cannot use the existing shelters (e.g. those with
medical nursing needs). This can be achieved through partnerships or joint
ventures with other organizations (e.g. nursing homes/retirement homes) and
facilitating easy access to the existing housing stock rather than
establishing new facilities.
Recommendation 11: That shelters participate in the training
necessary to better respond to the common issues/needs of abused older
women, including increasing their knowledge and skill in the areas of the
aging process and related health and mobility concerns of some older women.
That MCSS place priority for
its shelter training dollars on the issue of abuse of older women.
Recommendation 12: That funders support these expanded roles of
shelters with adequate financial resources.
- Safety for abused older women means more
than shelters. The women in the
sample spoke about the factors that
contribute to safety. They
suggested that people to talk with such as peer support groups,
telephone supports, day programs, people coming into the home i.e. home
based support services, and a 24 hour multilingual emergency phone line
would all increase their safety. All
of these would increase the network or circles of people who are involved in
some way in the life of a vulnerable abused woman.
The greater the numbers of people in a woman’s life, the more
likely it is that she will be safe. There
are existing networks that can be enhanced to provide the kind of support
women described, such as programs in seniors' centres and faith and cultural
communities. Some cultural and faith communities may already have specific
ways of dealing with community problems that can be harnessed to address
this issue. Yet some women will still
be hard to reach. While this study did not have time to seek out large
numbers of hard to reach older women who are being abused, they must not be
forgotten.
Recommendation 13 : That to enhance the informal supports older
women are seeking and to bridge the existing gaps between cultural/faith
communities and social services, resources be invested in developing Peer
Support Programs for older women. Further,
that when cultural and faith communities have mechanisms in place to deal with
the issue themselves, they be supported to do so.
Recommendation 14: That key stakeholder groups such as shelters and
seniors services be supported in efforts
to develop effective strategies to seek out hard to reach abused older women
and link them with the resources they need to increase their safety.
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