Protecting and Honouring Our Elders

SFU researcher Dr. Gloria Gutman sustains charity’s crucial work to prevent elder abuse before it happens with an endowment fund at Vancouver Foundation.

Society has rightfully taken a zero-tolerance stance toward child abuse. Robust training, reporting procedures, and safety nets have been developed. These systems work together to help identify instances of child abuse, remove children from harm, and prosecute perpetrators. News coverage of these ills quickly goes viral and elicits strong emotional responses from communities.

In comparison, elder abuse often remains invisible. Mechanisms for identifying and correcting this harm are underdeveloped. It is estimated that 1 in 10 adults over the age of 60 has experienced some form of elder abuse. As our population ages, more must be done to protect elders.

Dr. Gloria Gutman is a leader in the field of gerontology and has established an endowment fund at Vancouver Foundation to sustain the work in elder abuse prevention. While her career is dedicated to serving this population, it will take a collective effort to bring meaningful change. “That’s addressing the issues of ageism,” says Dr. Gutman, “It is at the base of abuse and neglect. [Society doesn’t] value older persons the way that they should.”

People have unfortunately become desensitized to the needs of our aging population. Dr. Gutman encourages more introspection, “More and more people are joining the ranks of older adults. So they need to think about twenty or thirty years down the road and personalize it more than we do. Consider the way we would like to be eventually treated.”

Funding the future elders deserve

CNPEA, or the Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, has established a nationwide hub for those dedicated to this work. CNPEA connects professionals who work with older adults, families, and those actively working to prevent elder abuse. The hub provides tools to identify the signs of abuse and guides for taking action.

In recognition of CNPEA’s work, Dr. Gutman collaborated with Vancouver Foundation and established the Gloria Gutman Fund for Elder Abuse Prevention. “I recognized very early on as an academic and an administrator that you can spend a lot of time chasing individual grants and contracts, and once they are gone, they are gone,” says Dr. Gutman. An endowment fund, however, is structured for sustainability as it earns income for the beneficiaries every quarter. She hopes the fund will support CNPEA’s operational costs, securing their work well into the future.

The endowment fund is a remarkable gift for Bénédicte Schoepflin, CNPEA’s executive director. “It was wonderful news to see Dr. Gutman establish this [fund] and put her name and reputation behind it with the goal of establishing a sustainable future for the organization! It is a form of safety that few [charities] get to experience.”

Expanding elder abuse prevention networks

Both Schoepflin and Dr. Gutman agree that public education is critical. “The goal is to step in early enough. To have people educated to recognize the risks before it becomes an issue,” says Schoepflin. In March 2022, CNPEA released FUTURE US, a roadmap to the prevention of elder abuse. This community engagement strategy provides goals and recommendations for governments, communities, and individuals. The organization hopes to expand its reach and establish networks in all provinces and territories. Currently, only six provinces have support networks to address elder abuse.

This under-recognized wrong will grow as the population ages. “Elder abuse has no boundaries. It appears in every country, and with rich people, and poor people. It crosses colour and culture. And there is an opportunity for a donor to contribute to something that has tended to fly under the radar,” says Dr. Gutman.

“Human rights have no expiration dates,” Schoepfin affirms. And neither does the work of CNPEA, which can count on support of the Gloria Gutman Fund for Elder Abuse Prevention long into the future.

What’s needed to prevent elder abuse

For Dr. Gutman, three areas of work are crucial to preventing elder abuse. By supporting organizations like CNPEA with an endowment fund, you can also contribute to this work.

Raise awareness. “We need people to recognize that one size does not fit all. There is a range of individuals with different levels of functionality, and some will age gracefully, and others will not,” shared Dr. Gutman. She also notes that the UN has declared 2021-2030 the Decade of Healthy Aging. The more we understand about our aging population, the better equipped we can become to serve their needs.

Support research. More scientific funding and research must be needed into diseases that commonly impact aging populations. Dr. Gutman imagines a world where diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s can eventually be contained, much like diabetes.

Address social factors. Issues such as poverty and a lack of education contribute to elder abuse. “What you are going to be when you are old is a product of how you live when you are young. We must address those and think upstream,” says Dr. Gutman.

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