Marie Beaulieu participates in the writing of a brief jointly submitted with Sophie Ethier as well as submitting a second brief as Research Chairholder in response to the government’s call for consultations to develop its Action Plan to Counter Mistreatment of Older Adults 2022-2027 (April 2021)

The brief submitted by Sophie Ethier and her team presents three strong recommendations whose foundation is implementing measures to counter mistreatment and promote wellness care of older adults who are caregivers. The full brief is available for viewing through the following link (Only in French).

For its part, the Chair submitted a brief to the Secrétariat aux Aînés du Québec refining four themes presented during the government consultation: ageism, psychological mistreatment, organisational mistreatment, and wellness care.

Several reflective approaches emerged based on the results of the Chair’s research projects and the scientific literature.

Ageism:

• Adopt the conceptual framework promoted by the WHO that separates ageism into three dimensions: stereotypes (cognitive aspect), prejudices (affective aspect), and discrimination (behavourial aspect).

Psychological Mistreatment:

• Pay particular attention to the actions take to counter psychological mistreatment between residents living in community settings.

Organisational Mistreatment

• To draw a general portrait, compile and analyse reports and complaints of organisational mistreatment received by Service Quality and Complaints Commissioners of the CISSS and CIUSSS (Integrated Health and Social Services Centers) of Québec. Simultaneously, compile successful courses of action following receipt of these reports or complaints.

Wellness Care

• To avoid confusion in the use of related concepts, we suggest a clear indication in the Action Plan of what is understood in Québec as ‘wellness care’ and ‘benevolence’. Points of convergence and divergence could then be underscored utilising a computer graphic inserted in the Action Plan and/or printable from the Publications section of the Minister of Health and Social Services website.

A series of other suggestions was included in this brief, and we invite you to take note of them should the fight against mistreatment and the promotion of wellness care interest you (will be available in English soon).