Anglophone seniors need help accessing services: minister
Weil says ‘major public campaign’ should highlight value of elderly
Younger Quebecers need to respect, value and spend more time with isolated seniors, perhaps particularly in Quebec’s anglophone communities, the minister responsible for relations with Englishspeaking Quebecers said Friday.
“There needs to be a major public campaign to sensitize people to the value that these seniors represent for the community,” Kathleen Weil told reporters after a meeting with leaders of about a dozen organizations that serve elderly anglophones on the island of Montreal. “They deserve full respect.”
The minister has been on a provincewide tour consulting anglophones on their needs and concerns, after the announcement by the Liberal government in November of the creation of a new secretariat to ensure that the concerns of English-speaking Quebecers are taken into account in government decisions and policies.
Weil said she has been moved by stories of seniors who are struggling financially and are socially isolated.
“What really strikes you is those who live in poverty and how difficult it can be to make ends meet. To have to make choices between eating or doing an activity, taking the bus to go somewhere. These are heart-wrenching stories.”
Anglophone seniors, Weil heard, tend to be doubly isolated, because of vulnerabilities related to age, but also because many of them do not speak fluent French. This can affect their ability to access health care and social services and to participate in community activities.
As baby boomers hit their golden years, services for the elderly are increasingly financially strapped, and volunteers are desperately needed to breach the gap, the groups told Weil.
Gerry Lafferty, executive director of the New Hope Seniors Centre in N.D.G., told the minister of his frustration at recently having to lay off one of his five employees. A lack of adequate funding means groups and services for seniors often have to rely on volunteers, which can be difficult to attract.
“We are having trouble just taking care of the seniors we have now without adding and the list of people that need our services is immense. I don’t know what to do,” Lafferty told the minister.
Others told Weil that services for poverty-stricken seniors, such as food banks and Meals on Wheels programs, are not as available in areas of the city where anglophone seniors live.
Weil said she was intrigued by the idea of a public-awareness campaign, raised by Tania Callender, a board member at the African Canadian Development and Prevention Network.
“I come from Barbados where seniors are revered,” Callender said after the meeting. “Your grandparents are everything to you ... so would it be of value for the government to step up and have a public campaign that champions elders and the contributions they make to our society? So when we are talking to high-school students and we are trying to get them to volunteer, if everybody got the message about how important (seniors) are and how amazing they are, how much they have to give to our society, (maybe) then that would encourage government to give more funding and volunteers to be more willing ” to spend time with seniors.
She spoke of a recent intergenerational Scrabble tournament her organization held.
“The energy in the room was amazing. I think those young people would not have expected to get so much out of it. The (elders) are hilarious; they tell jokes, they have stories, and it was just the most enriching experience.”
Ruth Pelletier, a board member with Seniors Action Quebec, suggested the government offer tax credits to volunteers for the hours they donate to the care of seniors, and suggested the government cover certain out-of-pocket expenses for volunteers.
Weil noted that there are now 1.1 million English-speaking seniors in Quebec and she hopes the new permanent secretariat will “bring attention to the fact that the community exists, it deserves services that are adapted (to its needs).
“We need the English community and we have to take care of them at all ages, from young vulnerable children to vulnerable seniors who need the support of the government.”
What really strikes you is those who live in poverty and how difficult it canbetomake ends meet.