World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is June 15, 2011, and South Eastman Health wants you to participate by wearing purple.
Research shows that 4 to 10 percent of Canadian seniors living in the community experience abuse or neglect. In Manitoba between 6,000 and 16,000 seniors will experience one or more forms of abuse every year. In South Eastman, that corresponds to 482 to 1,206 seniors who will experience abuse this year. Eighty percent of abuse is hidden, with only 1 case in 5 ever coming to the attention of a community agency (2009, “It’s Everybody’s Business” Age & Opportunity Inc).
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, June 15, 2011, was adopted by the Province of Manitoba in 2006 to address the poor state of awareness of this issue, which is considered to be 10 years behind that of domestic violence and 30 years behind child abuse (Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse).
South Eastman Health is participating in WEAAD by asking staff and community partners to wear purple on June 15 to show that the abuse of older adults is not acceptable.
