Practice Tools
"On World Health Day, April 7, 2018, Battered Women’s Support Services launched the #SomeMenBreakMoreThanHearts initiative, designed to raise awareness of violence against women in intimate relationships, and provide resources to family physicians throughout B.C.
The campaign includes an information and resource kit for general practitioners throughout B.C.. It’s designed to help practitioners better identify and respond to women who may be experiencing violence in an intimate relationship; and offer resources that are available to support women, including immediate safe places to go, crisis support, and ongoing counselling.
The medical community plays a key role in early detection, intervention, provision of specialized treatment and effective referral of survivors of violence in intimate relationships helping alleviate the physical, sexual and emotional consequences."
Source: Battered Women Support Services
"This toolkit is meant to help people and organizations host effective meetings to exchange ideas and respond to the social isolation of seniors in their communities. It contains tools, templates and support resources for hosting an ideas exchange event.
Ideas exchange events:
- help people and groups to share knowledge about the social isolation of seniors
- build and strengthen relationships in communities
- create opportunities for working together to address the social isolation of seniors in the community
For an overview of social isolation of seniors in Canada, consult Social Isolation of Seniors - Volume I: Understanding the issue and finding solutions
"Engaging Older Women in your Community is a promising practices tool developed as an outcome of the Older Women’s Dialogue Project (OWDP). The publication is intended to support your agency to anticipate and address structural barriers to the participation of older women in community initiatives aimed at legal and policy change. We include key questions to explore, tips for enhancing organizational capacity to include older women, and examples from our experience throughout the OWDP. All of the ideas contained in this resource reflect what we learned through our work with older women living in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. The quotations are the words of older women who shared their experiences with us. (...)
This guide identifies strategies for engaging older women in meaningful, older womenled volunteering as a method to combat systemic inequalities against older women, and support the leadership potential of older women. The guide will be useful to staff working in the women’s sector, seniors sector, and volunteer organizations, and also to practitioners working in research, community development, program development, policy, and law reform, and in general, for anyone working with older women in Canada."
Source: Canadian Centre for Elder Law
The following resource is part of the Family Violence Initiative, funded by the Department of Justice Canada. Find similar tools by searching for the FVIF tag or consult the list of available resources.
A Handbook for Service Providers on Working with Abused Older Women in British Columbia and Yukon
"Spousal abuse of women over fifty is often relegated by academics and administrators into the all-enveloping category of Elder Abuse rather than understood as being part and parcel of the whole spectrum of violence against women and their children. Some of the challenges faced by service providers are not new. They are the old challenges newly recognized by an ageing generation.Contributing to the lack of knowledge and understanding for service providers on the issue of detecting violence and abuse of older women versus elder abuse is the reluctance of women to disclose, coupled with the expectation that older people are expected to decline in their later years."
Jill Hightower and M.J. (Greta) Smith
Source: B.C./Yukon Society of Transition Houses, 2005 (now B.C. Society of Transition Houses)
The following resource is part of the Family Violence Initiative, funded by the RCMP. Find similar tools by searching for the FVIF tag or consult the list of available resources.
"This toolkit was designed for agencies supporting older victims who are vulnerable, at-risk, or experiencing abuse. Whether the individual is an older woman or man, the Safety Planning Toolkit provides important information about family and partner violence. It also provides suggestions and strategies to help protect older adults in situations of risk or danger and how to maintain their safety and security. The Toolkit uses an approach to answer common questions many older adults ask such as, is my relationship unhealthy? What can I do? Who can help me?
The toolkit provides:
- key facts and statistics on abuse and violence in later life
- tips on how to recognize the warning signs of unhealthy relationships or abusive partners
- action steps for an older adult
- personal safety including making a personalized safety plan
- contact information on programs and services
This toolkit provides information only, it is recommended that older adults contact a local agency for support.
They can also call Victim Services or the Seniors Safety Line at 1-866-299-1011 for a customized safety plan."
Related materials:
Recorded webinar - Supporting Older Adults to Create A Safety Plan
Source: Elder Abuse Ontario
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