There's a fine line between doing the right thing and minding your own business.
The challenge is to figure out when to take action, when to leave it alone and when to turn it over to the professionals.
Abuse of adults and elders in the Prince George community is a subject not often talked about. The Prince George Community Response Network raises awareness and offers information on how to respond when an adult needs assistance.
There are many areas to consider.
Abuse comes in many forms including financial, legal, emotional/psychological, physical, sexual or invasion or denial of privacy. Neglect is another issue, which is defined as failure to provide necessary care or attention likely to result in serious harm and there's also self-neglect, too.
"We're looking at adult abuse and neglect for the population of all adults 19+," said Tim Rowe, northern interior regional mentor for the B.C. Association of Community Response Networks, which is a non-profit organization. "We promote awareness around abuse and neglect and how to stop it and how to intervene. As an organization we don't get involved in the day-to-day personal cases of adult abuse and neglect. What a CRN does is bring together interested representatives in the community who wish to be involved in the prevention of abuse and neglect in adults and it tends to be those who belong to organizations in those sorts of services and it can involve individuals interested in promoting awareness."
There are about 15 organizations in Prince George that are connected to the Community Response Network.
"So often we have resources in our community that work with people who have been abused and neglected but often the organizations don't know about each other or how they operate or what services they provide so the first thing the CRN does is promote awareness between the organizations and talk about what services exist in the community to step in and help adults," said Rowe.
The provincial body has trained people to go into communities throughout B.C. to present material on the topic of identifying abuse and neglect.
There are five people in Prince George who offer free presentations about what can be done about abuse, said Rowe. Call Wendy Brophy at 250-564-6408 to arrange a presentation.
"It's called the bystander approach and it gives information to neighbours, friends and family about how to identify abuse and neglect, what are the steps you can take to engage in some conversation around it and how to help the person that admits they are being abused or neglected," said Rowe. "And how do we offer support and guidance without breaking a confidence or trust to give them the information they need."
The material was developed in Ontario and has been adopted by B.C. CRNs. One of the websites to access is www.itsnotright.ca and the other is www.neighboursfriendsandfamilies.ca.
"This is about what we can do as a member of the public about abuse and neglect we see in the community," said Rowe.
The other issue is whether reporting abuse should be mandatory as it is for children under 19.
"So there's research and discussion taking place about what are the advantages and disadvantages of compelling people to report abuse and neglect of adults," said Rowe. "It's a difficult subject and I can see both sides of the case."
In certain situations, Rowe noted, there are facilities that have don't necessarily have mandatory reporting requirements but they do have policy in place around reporting.
There are organizations that must investigate if abuse and neglect are reported to them and those are the five health authorities in BC as well as Community Living BC for those adults living with a disability.
For more information visit http://www.bccrns.ca.
