Alberta lacks a province-wide governmental service to assist and advocate for seniors in the province, making it difficult to coordinate programs and supports for seniors and to monitor and act upon concerns.

There are currently 19 provincial government departments involved in the provision of care for seniors. In addition, Regional Health Authorities, municipal governments, police departments, service organizations, private facility operators and seniors groups also assume some responsibilities for the care of seniors.

The number and diversity of involved agencies has led to omissions, overlaps and an overall lack of coordination. It is also difficult for seniors or their family to know where to access information about services available to them.

At the same time, there are appalling instances of neglect and abuse of seniors due to the lack of standards, regulations and enforcement to provide adequate protection to vulnerable seniors.

To address these problems, Public Interest Alberta supports the establishment of an Independent Seniors Advocate (ISA) as an officer of the Legislative Assembly.

The Office of the Independent Seniors’ Advocate (OISA) would support the work of the ISA and would maintain a small staff to carry out necessary responsibilities. In addition to the ISA, one position would be responsible for collecting and updating in one central location the considerable resources which are available in the province to assist seniors in distress.

Another member of the OISA would be responsible for recruiting, training, and deploying a corps of seniors, called Independent Seniors’ Advocate Elders (Elders). The Elders would be paid honoraria and expenses to be the field officers of the ISA, responsible for visiting seniors in distress and to advise them of existing resources.

In addition to this individual advocacy work, the ISA would have two other critical roles. The first is to refer cases of administrative unfairness to the Ombudsman or where there is evidence of severe mistreatment, to the police, Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission or other appropriate agencies.

The ISA would also be responsible for gathering evidence of deficiencies or gaps in the services available to assist seniors in distress and would report annually and as needed to the Legislative Assembly on seniors issues requiring governmental attention.

We want action now:
The provincial government must establish an Independent Seniors Advocate as an officer of the legislature.

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