Elder Abuse--Physical, Psychological and Financial
May 24, 2011
Hosted by Dr. Gordon Atherley
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Guest Information
Episode Description
Constable Patricia Fleischmann of the Toronto Police Service has administrative responsibilities for Vulnerable Persons Issues, including abuse and neglect of older adults, persons with disabilities and mental health conditions. She describes the types of elder abuse she encounters, and says how common these types are. She talks about causes of elder abuse, and health conditions that make seniors especially vulnerable to abuse. She explains what family caregivers and families need to know when elder abuse has occurred. She highlights what is known about in-family elder abuse, and how this typically occurs. She discusses the signs that elder abuse is occurring. She discusses the circumstances in which police charge elder abusers, and explains when and how she recommends family caregivers and families to get in touch with the police. She says what more can be done by police services such as hers to prevent elder abuse, and what more she thinks can be done by family caregivers.
Family Caregivers Unite!
Archives Available on VoiceAmerica Variety Channel
Family caregivers are the people who provide care to partners, parents, children, brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, neighbors and even co-workers. They are the people who provide care when everyone else has gone home. They are the people who organize the functioning of the home for the person with special needs, and for the family as a whole. They are the coordinators of care, the managers of appointments, the preventers of loneliness, and the makers of decisions even to the point of Power of Attorney. And they are so often people who themselves are burdened with their own health challenges and who may be in only marginally better health than the persons to whom they are providing family caregiving.
Dr. Gordon Atherley
Dr Gordon Atherley holds the British equivalent of the Canadian PhD and MD degrees, and LLD, Honoris Causa, from Canada’s Simon Fraser University. His awards include Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, UK. His medical specialties are occupational medicine and public health.
As first President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, the Canadian equivalent of the US National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, he led the creation of Canada’s electronic information service in occupational health and safety, now used in more than 40 countries.
In academia, he held senior, tenured, full-time positions, including departmental chair, in university faculties of physics, engineering, and medicine. He is the author of a textbook and numerous articles and publications.
Since retiring from medical practice, he’s built up Greyhead Associates, which critically researches the safety, effectiveness and fairness of health services for persons with special needs.
Through Virtual Care International, a company of which he’s President, he’s involved in providing sensible technology to family caregivers to help them with their responsibilities, workloads, and concerns.
Now an activist, he urges family caregivers to unite because, more and more, it’s not just their families who depend on them, it’s also the healthcare system as a whole, as it struggles to meet more and more needs of more and more people.
