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Archives > Summer 1995 articles
Abbotsford's Freedom From Fear Project
Kathryn Zanatta, Coordinator Abbotsford Police
Victim Services
Abbotsford Elder Abuse Project
A 75 year old woman is convinced by her son to sell her
house in the eastern United States and move to Canada to live
with him, his wife and two small children. Out of work and
in debt, her son borrows over $10,000 from her over the next
two years. The conflicts in the family relationships increase
as the wife discovers that her mother-in-law is increasingly
forgetful, and clearly unable to babysit the grandchildren
when the wife works. Unable to think of a better solution,
the son drops his mother off for Transition House staff to
pick up.
A retired missionary is called by a fraudulent company
telling her she has won a major prize, which will be delivered
if she sends enough money to handle mailing costs. The prize
never arrives, but other companies call offering more news
of winnings. The callers are always personable and friendly.
She continues hoping she will receive some of the items because
she has promised to give the television to a school and the
microwave to a church in the community. When her savings are
gone, the offers change to promises of getting her money back,
if she will only send small amounts from her monthly pension
cheques. She is eventually forced to sell her car, because
she can no longer pay for gas and insurance. The loss of her
car means she must now rely on others to drive her to shop
for groceries or attend church.
A 68 year old man is delighted when he is offered a job
as Assistant Manager of his apartment building. With rediscovered
vigour, he decides to stop the vandalism in the underground
parking lot by doing middle of the night checks on the vehicles.
One night he is attacked and beaten. Although the offender
is caught and found guilty, the victim is overcome with fear
of retaliation and frustration with the criminal justice system.
He and his wife give up their jobs and move to Alberta to
be closer to their children.
These are the faces of older victims of violence. Crimes
against the elderly have an impact that far exceeds that experienced
by younger victims. Financial losses become irreversible when
you can no longer work to recoup your losses. Self-esteem,
already made fragile by a society that does not respect or
value seniors, is irrepairably destroyed. Physical recovery
is not only slower, but a push to the ground by a purse-snatcher
can result in far greater damage when bones are brittle. Probably
the most important thread that links these stories is the
loss of independence these people have experienced. By being
a victim of crime each of their lives was tragically changed.
Techniques of dealing with other age groups to prevent victimization
have not necessarily been effective with seniors. Self-defence
courses abound, but are not geared for people who are frail
and vulnerable. Police departments across the country have
housed their violence prevention programs within their Crime
Prevention Units, which, although effective in reaching large
numbers of citizens, including seniors, has limitations. The
National Advisory Council on Aging states that 'there is evidence
to suggest that crime prevention programs achieve their goal
at the expense of seniors' quality of life and freedom of
movement; they can actually undermine seniors' sense of security,
with the result that they curtail their activities outside
the home.'
Freedom From Fear is a new program funded through
the Ministry of Women's Equality which is being developed
in Abbotsford through the efforts of two groups of seniors.
The Seniors Help and Awareness Council is an advisory group
to Abbotsford Police Department. Their innovative role is
to ensure that police are sensitive to seniors' needs and
that programs being offered by the police department meet
those needs effectively. They have linked with Abbotsford
Association for Healthy Aging. One of Healthy Aging's main
concerns is elder abuse - the hidden crime. Their goal is
to strengthen seniors to stand up for themselves, so they
cannot be taken advantage of by others.
As a prototype, Freedom From Fear will evolve during
its funding period, but the focus will remain constant - to
arm women over the age of 60 with self-protective responses
that will prevent their victimization by both strangers and
family members. This goal will be accomplished by selecting
and training 12 volunteers, who are themselves over 60 years
of age, to present workshops centered on information, skills
and attitudes rather than avoidance techniques.
The volunteers will not only model seniors taking control;
they will also develop the five workshops. This will ensure
the presentations are age-appropriate.
The workshops will cover:
- personal safety on the street
- fraud and financial abuse by family members
- physical abuse by spouses, children or caregivers
- sexual assault
- assertiveness responses and self-esteem.
The workshops will be segments of approximately 20 minutes
duration, which can be put together in a variety of ways to
accommodate the needs of the audience, but the assertiveness
and self-esteem component will always be included.
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