Share your thoughts: Creating a federal policy definition of “senior abuse”

Opened on June 15, 2021 and will close on July 22, 2021.

Senior abuse is an important human rights issue. It is also a social and public health issue that can undermine an older person’s:

• quality of life
• autonomy
• dignity
• sense of security, and
• mental and physical health

We commit to strengthening Canada’s approach to senior abuse. To that end, we are looking for your feedback to create a federal policy definition of “senior abuse”. Currently, there is no standard in Canada. It can mean different things to different people depending on their life and ethno cultural experience.

A federal definition will support more consistent and informed:

• awareness and prevention activities
• data collection, and
• program and service delivery

By participating in this consultation, you will help us more clearly define this important issue.

Note: While this issue is commonly known as “elder abuse”, the term “elder” has a distinct cultural meaning for Indigenous communities in Canada. In recognition of this, we will use “senior abuse” to describe this issue throughout the consultation.

Who is the focus of this consultation
The Government of Canada is looking to engage with:

• researchers and academics
• groups and other experts that:
  • represent older adults,
  • provide support to older adults, and
  • work with persons with disabilities, LGBTQ2 communities, new immigrants, official language minority communities.
• Indigenous communities, governments and organizations
• members of the general public, including seniors

Key questions
The online survey focuses on themes related to support defining “senior abuse”. Specifically, we would like to know:

• preferred term to describe the issue
• elements or behaviours to include in a definition
• types of information or data needed to develop senior abuse policies

Click for more information and to participate.