Increase in claims of elder abuse fuels further study by B.C.’s advocate for seniors

A recent jump in calls related to elder abuse have prompted further investigation into the problem. Kier Junos reports on the key findings on B.C. Seniors’ well-being in a new report from the seniors’ advocate.

VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) — B.C.’s advocate for seniors says as long-term care homes were purged with cases of COVID-19, elder abuse jumped which prompted a thorough review of the problem.

In her annual report monitoring seniors services, Isobel Mackenzie found calls to the Seniors Abuse and Information Line increased by 17 per cent between 2018 and 2019.

“But it’s still relatively speaking a small number of calls. What we’re more concerned about is that when you think about there’s a million seniors in British Columbia, or pretty close to a million seniors right now, and this represents 1,500 phone calls, there is much more going on that we are aware of.”

The report says there were 5,558 calls to the seniors line, and 28 per cent of them were related to abuse.

However, the report says the advocate’s office has identified a lack of effective tools for measuring the abuse and neglect of seniors, and lack of public understanding of what elder abuse is or how to report it.

“All of these are pointing in the direction of the systemic review we’ve undertaken and hopefully will release in the early part of 2021 to talk about what we could be doing better.”

The new report also says the average wait time to get into long-term care has also increased by three per cent, or 133 days.

“We have found that all of the indicators are aligning to show an increase – we have more people on the waiting list, but it’s just a snapshot in time – however, they’ve been on the waiting list longer than in previous years. People who were admitted to long term care waited longer than the people who were admitted than the year before, and the percentage of people admitted within 30 days, which is sort of our goal, dropped from the previous year.”

But in good news, Louise Trembley at the Seniors Come Share Society says she has seen an increase in demand for their services which seek to improve the lives of seniors at home during the pandemic.

“The calls to our lines have tripled since the pandemic, with different issues, with housing issues, with food security issues, caregiver burnout, and these kinds of issues that come with the pandemic,” she tells CityNews.

The report says 94 per cent of B.C. seniors continue to live independently in their own homes, and the overall health of seniors remains relatively stable.

But the data in the new report only captures April 2019 to March 2020, and therefore doesn’t go over the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on B.C. Seniors. But Isobel Mackenzie can guess.

“We know that long term care has been challenged around admissions because of COVID. When a care home is in outbreak, it’s closed to new admissions. So we may see increased pressure on our waiting lists, and we may see a decrease in our overall admissions next year. So we’ll have to wait and see on that.”

The report covers everything from health care to transportation based on data from 2019-20.

Mackenzie says there’s a lack of awareness about what classifies as elder abuse, adding that people don’t know where to report abuse and there’s no way to track it.

A follow-up review with a report is expected next year.

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