Launch of the project entitled Addressing National Data Gaps on Senior Abuse in Canada: An exploratory feasibility study funded by the Canadian Department of Justice (June 2021)

The Canadian Department of Justice has mandated Marie Beaulieu to lead a pan-Canadian consultation focusing on current gaps in population-based data collection regarding the mistreatment of older adults.

This extensive consultation seeks to identify the challenges and limits to the definition of mistreatment of older adults and related data collection. Ultimately, the information collected will be used to propose to Justice Canada a pragmatic and phased approach to planned changes in future data collection efforts.

Entitled Addressing National Data Gaps in Senior Abuse – An exploratory feasibility study, the short-term project will utilise diverse methods such as documentary analyses and interviews with key Canadian and international researchers, provincial and territorial government representatives and members of the Board of Governors of the Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse all of whom are involved with countering the mistreatment of older adults.

This initiative concentrates on the five concerns submitted by the Canadian Department of Justice’s inter-ministerial working group:

• What are the challenges associated with qualitative and quantitative data collection concerning the mistreatment of older adults;
• What elements help differentiate ‘negligence’ from ‘violence’ in the context of the mistreatment of older adults, and how can they be measured;
• What are the steps to be followed or the scientific approaches to be mobilised to ensure data collection is as unbiased as possible;
• Are there complementary avenues that could be utilised to mitigate existing limits to data collection on a national scale;
• What are the essential themes to be measured throughout data collection on the mistreatment of older adults.

Justice Canada expects the results to be made public in Spring, 2022.