Isobel Mackenzie plans to difficulty a report in 2020 with suggestions for change
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Dec 12, 2019 • December 12, 2019 • 2 minute learn • 
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The B.C. seniors’ advocate has launched an in-depth research of elder abuse with the objective of releasing a report with suggestions subsequent 12 months.
Isobel Mackenzie mentioned Thursday that her workplace has collected information on elder abuse for the previous 5 years, nevertheless it’s turn out to be clear to her the data isn’t significant as a result of there’s no standardized method for anybody who sees elder abuse to report it.
Mackenzie mentioned her Office of the Seniors Advocate in Victoria is reviewing provincial laws and has began on a session course of as a part of its “systemic assessment” of elder abuse.
“We look to a report popping out later in 2020 with some suggestions on how we are able to higher collect info and higher inform the general public and begin to have some dependable info and a few confidence that we’re offering a strong system for reporting and monitoring and coping with elder abuse,” she mentioned.
“It is a difficulty that not solely seniors really feel passionately about, the general public at massive does as nicely.”
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Mackenzie made the feedback in the course of the launch of Monitoring Seniors Services 2019, her annual report on assessing companies for seniors in areas resembling well being care, housing, transportation and earnings.
A complete of 1,626 circumstances of abuse, neglect and self-neglect have been reported in 2018 to provincial businesses. However, the report mentioned the determine must be “interpreted with warning as a result of it is incomplete, inconsistently reported and vulnerable to subjective bias on account of lack of reporting standards.”
Mackenzie mentioned the report additionally discovered that by far the primary type of transportation for seniors stays personal autos. She mentioned 78 per cent of individuals aged 65 have a driver’s licence, a rise of 4 per cent which matches the four-per-cent enhance to 912,725 in the overall variety of seniors in B.C.
Of the 72,000 driver health circumstances in 2018 for these 80 years of age and older, about 90 per cent have been efficiently accomplished in the physician’s workplace, she mentioned.
“People who get the discover after they attain 80, and each two years thereafter, to go to the physician’s workplace, overwhelmingly are going to return out with no additional testing required,” she mentioned. “The message I wish to get out to seniors is that should you suppose you’re in a position to drive, you most likely are.”
She added that the majority seniors give up their driver’s licence on their very own phrases reasonably than via the provincial testing course of.
Other highlights from the 96-page report embody:
• Most seniors are “typically wholesome,” with 19 per cent dwelling with high-complexity persistent well being situations. Six per cent reside with dementia. Both figures have “remained comparatively secure over the past 5 years,” the report says.
• Since 2015-16, the variety of home-care complaints to the Patient Care Quality Office has risen steadily and elevated by 17 per cent in 2018-19 in comparison with the earlier 12 months.
• Ninety-three per cent of seniors, and 72 per cent of these aged 85 or older, dwell independently in personal dwellings; solely six per cent of seniors are in assisted dwelling or long-term care.
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