Senior projects tackle bullying, isolation and abuse

Bullying, social isolation and elder abuse are not what we have in mind for our latter years, but they are realities older people face.

"Bullying in senior residences is a common response when the give and take of communal living is not properly addressed,” according to Karen Sheridan of the South East Edmonton Seniors Association (SEESA).

To address the problem, the association has created the Senior to Senior Anti-Bullying project. The project recently received funding through the Government of Canada's New Horizons For Seniors Program for development an anti-bullying toolkit. The toolkit will be used to educate and equip elderly persons living in seniors' residences, as well as residences' staff to better deal with offensive behaviour and confrontation.

“SEESA began the for-seniors by-seniors project to explore how residents can co-create the kind of communities in which they want to live," said Sheridan.

Social isolation among senior caregivers is the focus of the Caregiver Connection Centre project of the Alberta Caregivers Association, which also recently received New Horizons funding. It will provide a centralized gathering place where caregivers can connect with each other for mutual support and information sharing.

“Caregiving can be a very rewarding experience, but it can also be very challenging and isolating,” said Anna Mann, executive director of the Caregivers Association. “Connecting with fellow caregivers makes a huge difference - you can almost see a burden being lifted off their shoulders."

The two Alberta organizations are receiving a total of $42,890 through the New Horizons program.

Meanwhile in Toronto, the Bernard Betel Centre is tacking the problem of elder abuse through art.  

As part of its Empowerment and Expression: Senior Voices through Art initiative,

the centre will organize town hall meetings to promote the social inclusion of seniors through art projects that will focus on elder abuse awareness.

The centre's activities include designing and creating an arts-centred elder abuse awareness curriculum based on best practices. Other activities focus on recruiting and training experienced senior volunteer artists, creating outreach materials to disseminate information about elder abuse and displaying seniors' arts projects to make them widely available to the public.

The Bernard Betel Centre was awarded $22,000 in New Horizons funding for the  project.