Who will speak for the seniors?
Brian Staples (For The Calgary Herald January 11, 2008)
It was the spring of 2003. I was frustrated and depressed, having just gotten off the phone with another desperate senior who had called me for help.
She was crying on the line. As the chair of a seniors' social action policy group called SALT, my number was listed in seniors' directories. I often got calls from seniors who were in all kinds of desperate situations.
Talking on the phone was not the answer. Face-to-face contact with these seniors was essential. Thus began a five-year struggle to get the province to create an independent seniors' advocate (ISA) as an officer of the legislature.
In my working life, I had been a public servant. My job was to develop our system of further education councils and then the interdepartmental community school policy. With both these programs, I was only able to succeed because an extensive public participatory process was used. If the ISA were to be established, I would have to get support from other seniors' groups.
I knew that could be a problem. Many seniors' organizations face two realities if they want to do advocacy work. Some need government grants to function. Few dare to bite the hand that feeds them. Others depend on selling memberships to seniors for which they can issue tax receipts. Issuing such receipts severely limits the amount of advocacy work they do.
Nevertheless, contacts were made with chairs of seniors' groups I thought might be getting the same kind of heart-wrenching calls I was receiving from seniors. Were they, too, hearing from seniors about issues such as grappling with the health-care system, having to leave their homes because a partner had died, their own children abusing them to get an inheritance, pensions or savings not being enough to live on, problems with repairs to their housing and so on?
Some chairs felt they could not get involved. Others were willing to step up to help make it happen. A circle of chairs of advocacy groups was formed and a proposal for an ISA developed.
The paper is available on the web at saltalberta.blogspot.com. It lists the seniors' groups that stepped up.
The ISA would have the same status as the ombudsman, who, incidentally, cannot act as an advocate.
She or he would have a small permanent staff. The staff includes an associate responsible for collecting and updating the wide spectrum of resources to assist seniors in distress. A second associate would be responsible for recruiting, training and deploying a corps of seniors, called ISA elders. The elders would be paid honorariums to be the field arm of the ISA. They would be able to visit seniors in distress, and guide them through the resource maze.
The ISA would also refer appropriate cases to the ombudsman, the police, human rights or the privacy commissioner. She or he would gather comprehensive evidence on deficiencies or gaps in services to assist seniors in distress and advocate for eliminating those deficiencies and for service improvements. Such comprehensive, system-wide evidence is not currently collected.
The independent seniors' advocate must be independent. At a recent meeting with the government's own seniors advisory council, the chair, a government MLA, said, very frankly, the last thing the government would want is an independent officer of the legislature because such positions set up their own bureaucracies and "we can't get at them." This statement contrasts starkly with Premier Ed Stelmach's commitment to openness and transparency.
The ISA paper has already gone through a standing policy committee and received favourable consideration. The concept was also endorsed by several of the governing party's leadership candidates including our treasurer. All opposition parties support the ISA idea. Alberta's senior population will double by 2020. The ISA is an important policy the province would be smart to adopt prior to the next election.
The fact many seniors continue to call out for help cannot be denied. It is time that all MLAs started getting phone calls requesting the province set up an independent seniors' advocate. It is better to have a really open and transparent way to address seniors' issues, rather than to stay silent until you or your loved one is making that call for help, and no one is there to take your side.
Brian Staples is the chair of the Seniors' Action and Liaison Team (SALT) and spokesperson for the Circle of Chairs of Seniors' Advocacy Groups.
© The Calgary Herald 2008
Brian Staples (For The Calgary Herald January 11, 2008)
It was the spring of 2003. I was frustrated and depressed, having just gotten off the phone with another desperate senior who had called me for help.
She was crying on the line. As the chair of a seniors' social action policy group called SALT, my number was listed in seniors' directories. I often got calls from seniors who were in all kinds of desperate situations.
Talking on the phone was not the answer. Face-to-face contact with these seniors was essential. Thus began a five-year struggle to get the province to create an independent seniors' advocate (ISA) as an officer of the legislature.
In my working life, I had been a public servant. My job was to develop our system of further education councils and then the interdepartmental community school policy. With both these programs, I was only able to succeed because an extensive public participatory process was used. If the ISA were to be established, I would have to get support from other seniors' groups.
I knew that could be a problem. Many seniors' organizations face two realities if they want to do advocacy work. Some need government grants to function. Few dare to bite the hand that feeds them. Others depend on selling memberships to seniors for which they can issue tax receipts. Issuing such receipts severely limits the amount of advocacy work they do.
Nevertheless, contacts were made with chairs of seniors' groups I thought might be getting the same kind of heart-wrenching calls I was receiving from seniors. Were they, too, hearing from seniors about issues such as grappling with the health-care system, having to leave their homes because a partner had died, their own children abusing them to get an inheritance, pensions or savings not being enough to live on, problems with repairs to their housing and so on?
Some chairs felt they could not get involved. Others were willing to step up to help make it happen. A circle of chairs of advocacy groups was formed and a proposal for an ISA developed.
The paper is available on the web at saltalberta.blogspot.com. It lists the seniors' groups that stepped up.
The ISA would have the same status as the ombudsman, who, incidentally, cannot act as an advocate.
She or he would have a small permanent staff. The staff includes an associate responsible for collecting and updating the wide spectrum of resources to assist seniors in distress. A second associate would be responsible for recruiting, training and deploying a corps of seniors, called ISA elders. The elders would be paid honorariums to be the field arm of the ISA. They would be able to visit seniors in distress, and guide them through the resource maze.
The ISA would also refer appropriate cases to the ombudsman, the police, human rights or the privacy commissioner. She or he would gather comprehensive evidence on deficiencies or gaps in services to assist seniors in distress and advocate for eliminating those deficiencies and for service improvements. Such comprehensive, system-wide evidence is not currently collected.
The independent seniors' advocate must be independent. At a recent meeting with the government's own seniors advisory council, the chair, a government MLA, said, very frankly, the last thing the government would want is an independent officer of the legislature because such positions set up their own bureaucracies and "we can't get at them." This statement contrasts starkly with Premier Ed Stelmach's commitment to openness and transparency.
The ISA paper has already gone through a standing policy committee and received favourable consideration. The concept was also endorsed by several of the governing party's leadership candidates including our treasurer. All opposition parties support the ISA idea. Alberta's senior population will double by 2020. The ISA is an important policy the province would be smart to adopt prior to the next election.
The fact many seniors continue to call out for help cannot be denied. It is time that all MLAs started getting phone calls requesting the province set up an independent seniors' advocate. It is better to have a really open and transparent way to address seniors' issues, rather than to stay silent until you or your loved one is making that call for help, and no one is there to take your side.
Brian Staples is the chair of the Seniors' Action and Liaison Team (SALT) and spokesperson for the Circle of Chairs of Seniors' Advocacy Groups.
© The Calgary Herald 2008
4 comments:
As the daughter of two seniors in their 80's I completely agree with your Herald article that it is time for an independent senior's advocate. The system is so difficult even for me to get through, I can't imagine if my parents were alone. A recent stay at the Foothills hospital highlighted for me that seniors often are given far less consideration that younger people. The number of seniors put in co-ed rooms, despite their vocal protests, horrified me. Their protests went ignored because they were often deemed "demented". Maybe they were suffering memory loss, but the lady yelling out "I saved myself for my husband, I'm not sharing a bedroom with a strange man" certainly seemed to be lucid enough to me. Maybe she didn't completely understand the situation, but her cries and emotional distress were real and completely ignored by staff. My own mother was forced into a co-ed room despite my protests that it was a consent issue, and she didn't consent. The Alzheimer's man put in with her may have been "harmless" but his peeping while my mom was on the toilet chair was emotionally distressing. She may be old, and he may not have been able to sexually assault her, but both of their dignities suffered.
Could you pls ask Blogger to give you more time for comments to be entered? I finished my comment to be told your website was timed out. As well, can you change your website comments instructions to say "click here to leave comments" I'm a novice blogger -- probably lots of seniors are. Your website is unclear.
Congratulations on getting the Edmonton Journal to put Brian Staples article as its lead editorial on Mon Jan 17/08. This open support The Journal's editorial board's open support gives SALT's proposal for an Independent Senior Advocate lots of credibility in public opinion, media assessment of importance, and a "heads-up" for politicians.
I would like to send an email asking my friends to support SALT's proposal; however I believe this website needs a POLITICAL ACTION PACKAGE for the Independent Senior's Advocate. For example you could post in the PACKAGE the names, telephone numbers (Legislature and Constituency) and emails of all MLAs. You could also tell us what you want communicated. ie "I'm phoning/emailing you today, Mr/Ms MLA to ask to to sponsor/support a motion introducing a bill for the Independent Seniors Advocte. When can I expect you to present this motion in the legislature? Can yo send me a confirming letter/email so I know you supported me and other seniors?"
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