Minister of Seniors and Housing Josephine Pon (left), released a toolkit aimed at increasing community capacity to respond to elder abuse.
The Addressing Elder Abuse: A Toolkit for Developing a Coordinated Community Response (CCR) provides a five-step process that communities, civil society organizations and individuals can use to develop a local approach to address elder abuse. By encouraging collaboration, a CCR strengthens communities through collective action to prevent, reduce and respond to elder abuse.
“Our government is committed to ensuring all Albertans affected by elder abuse are supported. This toolkit will help local organizations and other partners provide seniors, their families, caregivers and loved ones with the services and supports they need to live safely and happily in their chosen communities.”
Service providers asked the government for resources to help organizations develop local responses to elder abuse. To ensure a toolkit would fully meet those needs, department representatives received input from eight communities already involved in various stages of CCRs, a range of organizations working in elder abuse prevention, and the Alberta Elder Abuse Awareness Council.
“A best practice to addressing elder abuse is to take a collaborative response, as no one agency can do it all. This toolkit will assist communities to develop a coordinated community response that is unique to their community without having to start from scratch.”
The toolkit is available online.