Professional stay in Europe in Septembre 2022
In September, Marie Beaulieu went on a second professional stay in Europe this year. This time, the stay lasted a little more than a week in Belgium which allowed to complete many activities.
There was first tripartite work in Liège between the Research Chair on Mistreatment of Older Adults, l’Association wallonne de lutte contre la maltraitance des personnes aînées (designated as Respect Seniors) and the French group PRISM (Promouvoir la Recherche, l’Innovation et le développement des Savoirs sur les Maltraitances) for which Marie Beaulieu is secretary. Multiple half days allowed to refine our collaborative work and to share our current preoccupations on countering mistreatment, preoccupations notably affected by the COVID-19 crisis and its effects as unveiling mistreatment. There was also a case discussion based on a real situation in Quebec.
Marie Beaulieu as given a public conference in Namur on September 13 entitled “Mistreatment of older adults: 5 international priorities as part of the UN’s Decade of Healthy Ageing” (free translation of Maltraitance des personnes aînées : 5 priorités internationales dans le cadre de la Décennie du vieillissement en bonne santé de l’ONU). Remember that Marie Beaulieu has played an active role in the development of these priorities that were disclosed on June 15, 2022 (https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240052550). Respect Seniors invited its members as well as their field partners. Marie Beaulieu has broaden the subject of her presentation to talk about the reviewing of the Act on reporting of April 2022 and the highlights of the 3rd Governmental Action Plan to Counter Mistreatment of Older Adults (June 2022).
On September 14, at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ghent, Marie Beaulieu has pronounced in English a conference at noon on the priorities of the World Health Organization on the matter of countering mistreatment, priorities that were integrated in the UN’s Decade of Healthy Ageing. This conference was recognized as a continuous training activity for the doctors that were present.
Still on September 14, Marie Beaulieu took part, as a member of the international doctoral committee, to the thesis defense of Ann Nobels, at the Doctoral School Life Sciences and Medicine at the University of Ghent. Her thesis, on the theme of Sexual violence in older adults in Belgium, has allowed to highlight not only the effects of sexual violence experienced over the life course on the living conditions and the health of older adults, but also to assess the magnitude of sexual violence that older adults experience, most of the time without reporting it or seeking help.
Finally, the last days of her mission were dedicated to a reflection on mistreatment in different contexts, notably at the end of life. It is is very interesting to confront differing point of views when the subject of euthanasia is addressed in Belgium or physician-assisted dying in Quebec which is not really addressed in France (social prohibited).