Regular Meeting: Wed. Oct. 15, 2014

We had a small but enthusiastic turnout at this regular meeting. We had three guests: Walter Philips of the White Rock Club, Rob Pineau of White Rock RCMP Victims Assistance Program and Ken our prospective member. Walter, who now lives in White Rock, used to be a member of the Richmond Club, but discovered that it was a much shorter drive to the Rotary Field House than to Richmond.

Guest speaker Rob Pineau gave an interesting talk on the White Rock Victims Assistance Program (VAP).  Every police department in BC is required by the Victims of Crime Act to maintain a VAP.  VAP is obligated to report suspected crimes to the police. VAP can also refer clients to outside community based programs, which are not required to report suspected crimes to the police. VAP deals with abuse of all sorts: domestic violence, threats, assaults (usually against women). It also deals with financial abuse, psychological abuse, elder abuse, fraud and the like. Rob noted that he has to think in terms of "grey shades" and not in black and white terms.  Sometimes it is difficult to tell whether an elderly parent is being abused by a child or a caregiver. It may appear that way, when in fact no abuse is occurring. On the other hand, seemingly caring people or relatives may be slowly draining all of the senior's savings and nobody suspects anything untoward is occurring. The issues are very complex and often the greatest loss to the senior is the feeling that they have lost their independence. In addition, sometimes the senior's relationship with children is complicated. The child may be taking advantage of the senior, but the senior may be fearful of losing his or her relationship with that child, so he or she allows the abuse to continue. Rob drew our attention to the BC Lions Football Club program: "Be More than a Bystander".  That program encourages people to step forward if they suspect elders or any person is being abused. Look for the warning signs such as whether the senior or the abused wife is being isolated or is reluctant to talk about potential abuse. Rob noted that new legislation will allow banks to report suspected financial abuse of seniors and other to the authorities. Rob noted a few outside sources for help: The Public Guardian and Trustee, Fraser Health, and Victim Link a 24 hours resource that can direct callers to various agencies that can assist victims or potential victims. All in all, Rob gave an interesting talk that resulted in an interesting discussion that went on until 8:30 am. At that point the Mercy Rule kicked in and we had to cut off the interesting discussion.