Grace village marks elder abuse awareness day
By William Crooks
Local Journalism Initiative
Residents, staff, and community members gathered at Grace Village Retirement Community on June 13 to raise awareness about elder abuse by participating in a walk near the property in honour of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.
“I don’t know if people really understand what elder abuse is,” said Grace Village Executive Director Brigitte Lambert. “It’s not necessarily just physical—it can be emotional, psychological, financial. It can be neglect.”
This was the second year the walk has been held at Grace Village. Lambert said on location that it’s important to keep building momentum around the issue. “We do this walk to say: we see you, we hear you, you matter, and you deserve respect.”
Lambert said elder abuse is often misunderstood and unreported. “It’s a very silent abuse,” she explained. “When you’re older, when you’re dependent on the other person, it’s scary. It’s shameful. You don’t know who to turn to.”
The walk was held in advance of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, recognized annually on June 15. Participants wore purple ribbons—symbolic of the cause—as they walked the grounds together.
According to a February 2025 update from the Public Health Agency of Canada, between four and ten per cent of older adults in the country experience some form of abuse, though only one in five incidents comes to the attention of someone who can help.
Lambert noted that recognizing elder abuse requires attentiveness and training. “If you have a resident that’s usually very outgoing and very friendly and talkative, and then all of a sudden becomes withdrawn, you kind of go, ‘Okay, there’s a change.’”
She added that financial abuse is also a concern. “Sometimes a resident starts saying, ‘I don’t have any more money to go to the hairdresser.’ That could be a sign.”
At Grace Village, Lambert said, “We train our staff to recognize signs, but we also educate our residents and families to say, ‘If you see something, say something.’”
She emphasized the importance of community-wide action. “There’s not enough education around it. We need to keep doing things like this walk.”
Lambert said organizing the walk is a way to “bring people together and start a conversation.” She said she hopes others will follow suit. “If we all do one little thing, it makes a difference.”
