Episode 59 - Protecting Vulnerable Adults from Financial Abuse with Kathleen Cunningham
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Nicole Garton 00:00:02 Hello and welcome to your Estate Matters, presented by Heritage Trust. Your Estate Matters is a podcast dedicated to everything estates, including building and preserving your legacy. If it's estate related, we'll be talking about it. We're having the conversations today that will help Canadians protect their families, their assets and their legacies tomorrow.
Over her career, Kathleen Cunningham served as the executive director of the BC Law Institute and the Canadian Centre for Elder Law from 2015 to 2020, she led the delivery of education, legal support and risk management at a major Canadian trust company and assisted the public guardian and trustee of BC with the implementation of personal planning and guardianship legislation, as well as all projects addressing financial abuse of vulnerable adults. Kathleen was a member of two BC Law Institute Committee's Modernization of the Trustee Act and Undue Influence, Recognition and Prevention A guide for Legal Practitioners. She assisted the society for Trust and Estate Practitioners, Canada with the planning, delivery and final report of its Symposium on Vulnerable Clients, and she's the author of the Step Canada's Client Service Resource A Guide to Assisting Persons in Vulnerable Circumstances.
Nicole Garton 00:01:22 Kathleen served on the Step Worldwide Council, and in December 2023, she completed a six year term on the steering committee for the Step Worldwide Mental Capacity Special Interest Group. Kathleen, you've had like an incredibly interesting and varied career, and you've really distinguished yourself as sort of a thought leader in this space, particularly around vulnerable adults and things like that. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your trajectory and how you got to where you are today?
Kathleen Cunningham 00:01:58 Well, I guess I would start with. It's been anything but traditional. I feel like I've had a very lucky career. I started out leaving high school wanting to go into accounting. Then I got into accounting at UBC. I need to do something else. long story short, I ended up doing the Combined Commerce Law degree at UBC. UVic and UBC offered those at the time, but then I never really wanted to practice law either. So then I had to look around and see what I wanted to do, and somebody said, well, have you ever thought about a trust company? I was like, no.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:02:30 Then I interviewed it. All the different trust companies I interviewed last at the company that I wanted to work for. I got a phone call saying, we're interested in you, but every lawyer that we've ever hired went back to practice. And I was so shocked that they agreed to interview me. So I never looked back. I had really interesting files. I dealt with the states, I enjoyed my clients was back in the day when the States didn't seem to be as contentious as they are today, but I looked after trusts and then I had some comity ships and dealing with people who were incapable, and we would look out to their financial affairs. So that's sort of how I got there. And then I was there. Then I went into head office and I did policy and training and answering questions. So I got to hear what the problems were and the problems were always interesting by the time they reached my office. So I got to deal with the best lawyers in the country. And I said it was just I never looked back and I was allowed to stay in Vancouver.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:03:25 I didn't have to move to Toronto. So I was was really unique in that sense. And then when I left that, I went to Australia, I did a master's in policy studies, came back at a Christmas party, and it said the person responsible for looking after a community, she was a community outreach person for vulnerable adults. She was going on leave to work on a special project. So I went in part time to fill in for her for two years, and I ended up there for five.
Nicole Garton 00:03:55 Are you talking about the Public Guardian?
Kathleen Cunningham 00:03:56 Public Guardian and Trustee.
Nicole Garton 00:03:59 Okay, yeah. So, tell our listeners what that is.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:04:01 The public guardian and trustee is a government body. There is a person called the Public Guardian and trustee, and that office looks after estates when there is no executor or nobody to look after the estate, they look after children, children and care, the financial affairs. And then they have services for adults. They will act as a committee.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:04:21 The Guardian: when a person is incapable, there's nobody else able and willing to do that. And they also have a group called Services to Adult, and they investigate reports of abuse and neglect. So in my time there, I worked mostly with services to adults and helped them with their relationships with getting information from the financial institutions and getting better dialogue going. And I wrote a lot of materials for them helped out with because in those years, 2010 to 2015, a lot of legislation from the adult guardianship reforms was finally coming into force. So I helped out with all of that.
Nicole Garton 00:05:00 And then now you're quite a noted researcher and writer. Tell us about that.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:05:05 I was at the BC Law Institute for five years, and I went there primarily because of the Canadian Centre for Elder Law.
Nicole Garton 00:05:13 And so tell, tell our listeners what those organizations are.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:05:17 So the BC Law Institute is BC's law reform agency, and they proposed they're a non-partisan body that proposes laws, changes to laws in BC. And many of them have been adopted over the years.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:05:30 Canadian Centre for Elder Law was established in the early 2000, and that was their focus was on the law that affects older adults. One aspect of of elder law, that whole field was abuse and neglect. So after my time with Public Guardian and trustee and then the BC Law Institute, the Canadian Centre for Elder Law, that was my personal interest. And we had some projects that I was executive director, but my staff looked after some projects dealing with a while, so I've been very close to it. I've done research comparing jurisdictions and the legislation, and I guess one of the big things that happened before the BC Law Institute, the center for Elder Laws, we had in BC a project to review adult guardianship in the 1990s. And out of that came the Representation Agreement Act. But prior to that, we had a Power of Attorney Act to deal with financial affairs. But then we were, look, I was interested in something to make health care decisions, personal decisions. But this whole project looking at adult guardianship was looking at how we work with people who have vulnerabilities.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:06:40 People who have cognitive issues can't necessarily make decisions on their own, but maybe can make some decisions. And during that time, I learned a lot about decision making and the need to respect someone's right to try to make decisions, to help them make decisions. And when the legislation first came out, I actually told my boss I did this for Amy. I had a client who fit right into the kind of situation we were talking about, somebody who could make decisions but couldn't control what was happening. I learned that there and then I threw that project at Al Etmanski, the founder of Plan Lifetime Advocacy Network, which is very much dedicated to helping support people to make their own decisions. So, I was interested in it. I didn't work personally in it, but I worked with people and did a lot of the research or writing this project.
Nicole Garton 00:07:29 So tell me about the particular focus on undue influence and elder abuse. How did you how did you get a particular focus on that area?
Kathleen Cunningham 00:07:38 Prior to being Executive Director at the BC Law Institute, I was on the project to look at undue influence.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:07:46 What is it? So when B.C. brought in its new succession legislation replacing the Wills Act, they had a section on undue influence, and it changed the presumption. Basically, it said that if a gift in a will or a will is made and the will maker was subject to undue influence, or was the benefit of whatever was done, benefited somebody who was in a position to control what the adult did, or the adult was dependent on them? They would have to prove that whatever benefit they received was not a result of undue influence. So we did a whole project on what is in undue influence. How do you recognize it? How do you deal with it? Because undue influence, we all can be subject to undue influence, because it's somebody making you make a decision that you would not make if you were on your own free will. They're pressuring you to do it. They're threatening whatever. So we did that project. Then more recently, we updated it in. One of my big beefs was we only dealt with wills, but undue influence happens when we're living people become their appointed.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:08:55 They have a parent appoint an attorney and an enduring power of attorney. And then they use that authority to steal. They influence them to change title to homes. So, it's in joint tenancy. And so that updated guide on dealing with undue influence deals with how undue influence happens, what to watch for and just looks at it testamentary, you know, in a will but also in the intervals of living things that happen.
Nicole Garton 00:09:22 So let's talk about that. So what is financial abuse of an adult and how is that different from neglect or self neglect.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:09:31 So if you'll forgive me I'll read the definition. BC has very thorough definitions. I won't read it completely, but abuse and this is a…we'll come to it later, but everyone has their own definition. So in BC the definition is it's the deliberate mistreatment of an adult that causes the adult physical, mental or emotional harm or damage or loss in respect of the adults financial affairs, but it also includes intimidation, humiliation, physical assault, sexual assault over medication, withholding needed medications, censoring mail invasion or denial of privacy or denial of access to visitors.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:10:09 When one form of abuse is happening, often other forms of abuse are happening. Some are more visible than others. Neglect is the opposite. It's any failure to provide the necessary care, assistance, guidance, or attention to an adult that causes or is reasonably likely to cause within a short period of time, serious physical, mental or emotional harm, or substantial damage or loss. In respect to its financial affairs. One is action of doing something or preventing something from happen. The other is just failing to do it, and the person can't get the help they need on their own. Self-neglect is included. Self-neglect is a is included in our legislation. It's not included in all legislation because it's a very different thing. It's some treat. Some jurisdictions treat it as a mental health issue because it's difficult to help someone who is refusing help. And until they end up in the hospital with some serious incident, it's often difficult to even try to reach out to them. So, we have self-neglect in our legislation in B.C., but not all jurisdictions do.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:11:19 And it is a very different thing to respond to.
Nicole Garton 00:11:21 So are we talking like the tea and toast syndrome that we often hear about, or does it have to be more significant.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:11:29 When you say tea and toast, sorry, I haven't heard that.
Nicole Garton 00:11:32 You know, an adult who is not giving themselves adequate nutrition.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:11:38 Yeah, well, it's something that would cause them physical or mental harm or loss or financial affairs. So, one of the things that'll happen is someone's not paying their taxes. And so the Public Guardian trustee will get a report that the taxes haven't been paid, and at some point that property is going to go up for sale. So, I guess that's an example of financial self-neglect or someone's refusing to pay. They have the authority and they're not paying. But if it's the owner who's has some mental health issues and they're just not paying their bills, that can be a clue. And that's the kind of thing that leads to financial loss, serious financial loss.
Nicole Garton 00:12:17 It's actually incredible how many individuals don't.
Nicole Garton 00:12:21 So, at Heritage Trust we end up being appointed administrator of estates or comity. So, for listeners, if someone loses capacity and they don't have power of attorney in place, a court appointed guardian and BC they call it a committee pursuant to the Patient's Property Act can be appointed and we get appointed where people haven't paid personal taxes in like 10, 15 years. Like, it's remarkable. But like how long things go and, and I guess the lack of checks and balances. So that leads me to like let's talk about how prevalent this is. Like financial abuse of an adult. Like I understand sadly is often individuals closest to the adult. And is that true? And what percentage of older people are subject to this kind of abuse?
Kathleen Cunningham 00:13:15 Yeah, measuring abuse and neglect is a difficult thing because as I mentioned, everyone has a different definition. So, to get a consistent definition and collect the information is challenging. There's different research out there, but I think it's fair to say probably at least 10% of the older population or other adults in vulnerable situations, younger people with other brain injuries and other situations.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:13:40 There is at least 10% of the population. And then it depends on what kind of abuse you're talking about. Financial abuse is a common one and it's becoming more and more common, unfortunately. And as you say, it happens, the statistics show that the majority of the abuse happens by close family members. And that's where it gets difficult, because you think there's a good, you know, a professional advisor might think there's a good relationship going on. They don't know what's going on behind the scenes. So, there's scams out there. We're not talking about the scams, but you know, we all hear about the scams and those are that's another issue. But we're talking in this situation about people who are deliberately doing something. And it tends to be people closer to the adult. Sometimes it's the other one is the predatory marriage, the person who marries an older person, and takes their assets. So they're, you know, the person doesn't have full capacity, they have capacity to get married. And they use that position of trust in that relationship.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:14:44 Because the adult was lonely. They felt that they were in a relationship where someone cared for them. And that is another area where there is abuse.
Nicole Garton 00:14:52 So let's talk about that. And I've absolutely had clients that have felt this. I remember there was one gentleman whose wife passed away, and he went to the community center where he regularly had coffee with other older gentleman, and there was an ad for a cleaning person, and he answered the ad, and next thing you know, he had secretly married that cleaning person without the knowledge of his family. I mean, these stories are very common. But let's talk about what are the situations like, what are the scenarios you see where people are really vulnerable. Tell me about the situations and what are some of the red flags that not just professionals, but people in the community can look out for? If there may be potential abuse or neglect?
Kathleen Cunningham 00:15:42 I'll get to that. But one other thing I was I did want to point out about the statistics. The other issue is just underreporting because these situations happen with family members.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:15:54 The adult, if they're aware enough of it, they don't want to say anything. They blame themselves there. They need that person to help look after them so they don't want to report it. So there's a whole bunch of that going on as well, which makes it hard to know what the real true stats are in terms of the risk factors. I think there's different situations that people can be and in the guide that step prepared, which I think you've shared with the audience, there are a lot of factors, but the research shows that some of the environmental risk factors or lack of social support, shared living arrangements and characteristics of the perpetrator, and that's mental health issues, drug or alcohol addiction, dependency on the older adult, or the stressor burden associated with being a caregiver. Sometimes the caregivers are just burned out. so those are some of the risk factors, things that can put a person at risk. They're not necessarily they don't mean the person is at risk, but it's some it's a situation.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:17:01 And then there's others that like living alone cultural norms. But it's unclear how strongly related they are. But they're things to be alert to. When a person is older, you often see functional incapacity and ability to make decisions or cognitive impairment, mental health issues, or just living in isolation and then other things gender, age, financial dependency, education those are other risk factors, but they're not as well supported by the research. But, you know, one of the things when we talk about recognizing abuse and neglect is we need to understand the risk factors and we need to understand the red flags, but we have to be careful to not jump to conclusions. We all have our own biases. We all see things through our own eyes. It may not be the way the client, the adult, sees the situation. They may have good reasons for what's going on, but the first step is to recognize these risk factors. And the red flags probably want to talk about as well.
Nicole Garton 00:18:05 Yeah. So tell us about the red flags.
Nicole Garton 00:18:07 What should families and professionals look for?
Kathleen Cunningham 00:18:10 There's groups of signs, things to watch out for. The physical ones would be you just observe physical. You see it happening. Some sort of act of violence, withholding medication, confining someone to a room, restraining them to a bed or a chair. Other things is you observe frequent or unexplained injuries, changes in their nutrition or their hydration, changes in their appearance or their grooming. They don't use their mobility aids or glasses or hearing aids. Things that you observe about that person. Then there's communication. The adult actually tells you they're being abused. Another person speaks or has started to speak on behalf of the adult. That can be a real tricky thing sometimes. And it's it happens a lot just in terms of even just ageism though. So, it's somebody shows up with their parent, a child shows up with their mother, and the child starts doing all the talking. Is that child talking because the mothers ask them to or because they're trying to control the message.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:19:11 Other things are restricting access to communication with others. Oh, you know, mom's not available. Mom's not here. Mom's sleeping. Dad's sleeping. Can't come to the door right now. Can't come out for a walk. Just keeping them away from other people. But they might want to actually see if it's a professional or a service. Providers having trouble getting access to somebody. Why? The adult can be just exhibiting unusual anxiety when meeting or speaking, can see it or hear it. There's something they're uncomfortable with, or they have unusual difficulty responding to communications or meeting requests. Why is that? They don't have the information. They don't know where to find it. Then there's behavior. There are behavioral changes. The client has become passive or compliant. They appear withdrawn. They're unusually aggressive. They're confused. They've stopped making their own decisions. And then there's relationships. Things like there's less or no contact. There's isolation from family or friends. And then there's new or unknown caregivers. Those predatory people who have come into the person's life to help out.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:20:19 And then there's behavioral signs, and then there's the financial legal obligations that they're not looking after. So, I could go through a big long list, but I think that gives you a flavor of the things to watch out for. And again, no, it's you observe things, but then you need to do some fact checking before you jump to conclusions. Talking to the adult about it can be tricky. There are resources out there that help you learn how to probe and ask questions. Because if you don't. If you're not careful when you do, probe. If you say like, I think your son is abusing you, they may shut down. So, you want to keep the door open. You want to keep the conversation open. Ask open ended questions, but try to respect the adults right to make their own decisions and decide what to disclose.
Nicole Garton 00:21:06 You talked earlier about undue influence. So how is undue influence different from financial abuse? And my understanding is it's not just persuasion. It's more than that. Do you want to talk to us about that?
Kathleen Cunningham 00:21:19 About undue influences? The person exerting the undue influence is imposing their wishes on the adult. I don't want somebody is making me change my will. They've coerced me into doing something and I don't want to do it. But I don't know how to say no. That's why once there's cognitive impairment, then a person is more vulnerable to that because it's easier to influence them to say something. I used to hear stories in the banks where, you know, the adult would come in one day and make an account joint with one child, and then next week they'd come in and make the account joint with another child. So, it's just something's not right here. If they keep changing things every week. So, abuse abuses the deliberate intent to the extent that it's a proactive action. Sometimes think people think they're doing what they're doing is right. They don't realize what they're doing is wrong. When the public guardian and trustee investigates, sometimes it's like, okay, what you just did was wrong. You took money, give it back and promise not to do it again, or we will have your power of attorney revoked.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:22:24 It also, it's doing things just knowing that it's they're taking something that belongs to someone else. But the undue influence is making the adult enter a transaction, make a document, do something they didn't they wouldn't do of their own volition.
Nicole Garton 00:22:39 So when does something become criminal?
Kathleen Cunningham 00:22:42 I'm not a criminal lawyer, but the Criminal Code does have, I guess, it when it comes criminal, there's a higher burden of proof, and we don't have a criminal offense of elder abuse because any adult can be abused and children can be abused. What we do have in the Criminal code, though, is a number of crimes. So, if you meet the threshold of the crime, you've got crimes against the person duty to provide the necessaries of life, criminal negligence, assault, sexual assault, intimidation those were all in the definition of abuse. And at some point, it becomes criminal. But again, that's another reason why adults may not want to report a family member, because they don't want to bring the force of the law against them.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:23:26 And then the other crimes are theft, and there's actually a theft by a person holding a power of attorney. It's actually in the criminal code and fraud. So there's a number of provisions that can be used. And the police officers across this country that are engaged in this, they know them and they use them, and the prosecutors will work with them. But it's nobody wants to take this to the level of criminal code, but if it's necessary, it is there for the really bad actors.
Nicole Garton 00:23:53 So say you are another family member or a neighbour, or maybe a professional, and you recognize red flags of abuse or undue influence. What are in a practical basis, what can you do?
Kathleen Cunningham 00:24:09 In BC we have the public guardian and trustee and the designated agencies. It's there provided for or the Public Guardian trustee has authority under its legislation to investigate financial abuse. And they can. They can freeze accounts or put a caveat on a property so it can't be sold. And then they investigate.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:24:34 If the person is not capable, they will look for solutions, finding someone who can make decisions for them in the as a last case scenario, they might become committee, but they try to solve the problems and bring people in a person's life into their life. These designated agencies, they can investigate, they are the health authorities and community living BC, and they can investigate all kinds of abuse and neglect and self-neglect. Some of them will say, call us first because the reality is they can investigate financial abuse, but they're in the health care system. So, investigating financial matters is not something that most of the people who do the investigations name…their name is escaping be, the designated responder. But they work with a Public Guardian Trustee. So, the first thing the Public Guardian Trustee will do is find out if this same client is on their radar. If they come up against a financial situation, they'll be in touch with the PGT. So, there's actually a flow chart in one of the materials from the Public Guardian and Trustee that it's like what to do if the client's life is in danger?
Kathleen Cunningham 00:25:37 Call 911. There was a story one time where someone was a bank, husband was in the bank saying he was going to shoot his wife, and they called the Public Guardian Trustee. No, no, no. You call the police first. Then if the adults are able to put them in touch with resources, and there's a list of resources in that guide and on the Public Guardian Trustee's website, and then if there's no resources or the client's not able or willing to do anything and you're still concerned, then you call report to the public guardian and trustee or the designated agency. And again, that flowchart sort of gives you a list of what happens if you call a police. What happens if you call a public guardian trustee. What happens if you call a designated agency? What to expect. Because people don't want to call the police. They're afraid of what might happen if they call the police. But the police, especially here in Vancouver, you know, they have dedicated cars and the officers work with a social worker, so they all work together, this bottom line.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:26:34 So, those are the places and then the community. In BC, we have community response networks. So, there's I don't know, there's I think over 80 communities around the province where a community response network is not a place to solve the problems. They don't take on cases, but they do at least once a year, meetings or events. It's a place for anybody interested in adult abuse, neglect and self-neglect to get together, find out who does what and just know what can be done in your community. Because in one small community, it might be better to call this place call list. But this is what will happen here. I remember going to my first event, and the firemen came in and police came in and social workers and people from seniors’ groups. And it's for anybody, any service provider at a home care nursing, you know, find out what's in your place. And the reason the fireman are there is because they get a call, because someone's, you know, they have to go into a home and they find somebody.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:27:39 So they. Everybody cares. They are just not sure what they need to do. I guess the big message in all of that is it takes a community. There is no single place to phone. You know, there's a lot of resources out there.
Nicole Garton 00:27:54 So we'll put a bunch of these resources in the show notes, and I'm on the email list for the community resource. It's great. Like if people want to learn more about this topic, like do you have recommended places they can go to learn more?
Kathleen Cunningham 00:28:10 Yeah. If you're interested in all of the legal and the capacity issues and all that, you know, have a look at the guide that we wrote. It can be read in segments, but for something that's really accessible for the general public and for professionals, as the Canadian Center for Elder Law has the Practical guide to Elder Abuse and Neglect in Canada. And so it's a great resource for just knowing it covers off the laws, it covers off privacy, it covers off the resources. There's always the public guardian and trusty websites in each province.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:28:43 BCS has a lot of materials there. The designated agency websites have information, and for people interested in representation agreements, Nidus is a great resource for representation agreements and what they're all about and how to make them.
Nicole Garton 00:28:58 So we'll put all of this in the show notes for people to check out. So how do you feel things are moving along? Like do you think there's more awareness and resources or is the system stressed and under resource like what's your experience?
Kathleen Cunningham 00:29:14 I think I would say there's more and more awareness. Professionals are becoming more and more aware because their clients are getting older. They're seeing things they don't know what to do, which is why step wrote this guide. So, with awareness comes spotting more situations. So, we're seeing it. The people who do the investigation say they're getting more and more complex. They're not as easy as they used to be. There's family dynamics. There's mental health issues. So, it's more difficult. The resources are there, the training is there, but they're stretched because as I say, it's getting more complex.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:29:49 But that's where again, the community response networks become a place to find out what you do locally to put safeguards around a person. How can you? And I think that knowledge is improving until we understand what we're looking at and see it for what it is, we don't know what we can do. And there are lots of things that can be done, and it needs to come from the community as well. One of the first conferences I came to, I remember a police officer saying, it takes a village. Yes, you can call the public guardian trustee. You can call the police. Yes, you can call the designated agencies. But we want to stop it and just prevent things from happening before they happen.
Nicole Garton 00:30:24 So if there's someone listening that wants to do more, what's something they can do?
Kathleen Cunningham 00:30:29 Well, I would say the first thing is to be aware of the red flags and the risk factors and be conscious of your own bias. So, start with yourself. What do you know and how do you see things? There's a lot that you can do, but probably the first thing is to look at some of these resources and pick the topic or the information.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:30:53 That seems like something you could do something about. Maybe you know somebody who doesn't have anybody in their life. How do you find somebody to help them make decisions or they don't know where to go to get they want they know they need to do something. Well, what are the documents they can put in place? What are the financial arrangements they can put in place to prevent things from happening?
Nicole Garton 00:31:14 That's great. Where can people find you, Kathleen, if they're interested in your research?
Kathleen Cunningham 00:31:19 I don't do much publicly anymore. I don't practice, so I'm there, but I can't take I don't take on clients or so on. Unfortunately, the resources that I put out are the sort of the place I can go.
Nicole Garton 00:31:32 Or I can certainly make those available. Yeah. So, thank you, Kathleen, so much for sharing all your incredible wisdom and knowledge and experience with us.
Kathleen Cunningham 00:31:42 You're welcome. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for putting this topic out there.
Nicole Garton 00:31:47 This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered individual, legal, financial, or tax advice.
Nicole Garton 00:31:54 Make sure to consult the advisor of your choice to advise you on your own circumstances.
Nicole Garton 00:32:01 Thank you for joining us for this episode of Your Estate Matters. If you like this podcast, make sure to follow it on your podcast platform of choice. Whether you're planning your own estate or you're acting as executor for somebody else's heritage, trust can help partner with Heritage Trust to protect your family, your assets, and your legacy. If you'd like more information about Heritage Trust, please visit our website at Heritage Trust Company.
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Resources noted:
STEP Canada Client Service Resource: A Guide for Assisting Persons in Vulnerable Situations (flipbook and downloadable)
see Appendix 8 for annotated list of Resources.
See Appendix 4 for resources on unconscious bias;
See Appendix 7 for list of provincial and territorial PGTs.
Canadian Centre for Elder Law – Practical Guide to Elder Abuse and Neglect Law in Canada
BC Association of Community Response Networks; watch for monthly provincial learning events , education events; and World Elder Abuse Day (June 15) events
Public Guardian and Trustee of BC scroll down to the Decision Tree link and link to BC government website text at the bottom of the page:
See Decision Tree: How to Assist an Adult who is Abused, Neglected or Self-neglecting (PDF, 424KB) to better understand which agencies to contact to make the most effective referrals for adults who may be vulnerable or incapable.
For more information, see the Province's website on protecting elders from abuse and neglect, and the PGT's videos on how to assist an adult who is abused, neglected or self-neglected.
See this page for list of designated agencies
Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse En/Fr; watch for World Elder Abuse Day (June 15) events
Nidus Information and forms for Representation Agreements and more
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