Ontario elder abuse hotline in jeopardy

Submitted by Francesca on January 28, 2012 - 10:30am
As the Executive Director for the United Way of Bruce Grey. I am also the Chair of the Seniors Advocacy and Awareness Network (SAAN) the elder abuse network for Grey and Bruce Counties.
I've just read this article in today's Toronto Star: Ontario elder abuse hotline in jeopardy and naturally I'm truly alarmed.
We too were in a position where we had an amazing program, we had a social worker working full time on cases and public education, only to have it shut down when our CCACs merge. Because no one else has such a service, we couldn't have one. Ironically 3 years later the CCACs asked for our, and other such groups, in creating a regional EA committee.
 
I am currently pushing the Toronto Start article out through Twitter, Facebook and local media. We shut down our hotline and had all calls directed to this line, and I'm pushing the message that the hotline is truly important to our community, as well as the province.
I hope this article, and resulting community dicussion raises dollars to support ONPEA as well as raises awareness of elder abuse in the province.