Advocacy for Seniors, is it needed?

The BC government is gathering information on a need for a Seniors' Advocate. They ask the question, How could an Office of the Seniors’ Advocate help seniors in British Columbia? 
Public consultations will be held in communities around the province, beginning in May and going into June. Click here for the consultation schedule. 


So if you want to talk about the need for an advocate find your way out to one of the meetings and to help you prepare the government has a list of questions they will address in the public meetings. These questions are

1. How could an Office of the Seniors’ Advocate help seniors in British Columbia?
2. What should be the priority focus for the Seniors’ Advocate? Should the Office focus initially on health care supports and services, including consumer issues related to those services?
3. Should there be an age range to access the Office of the Seniors’ Advocate?
4. What could be the role of the Seniors’ Advocate in elder abuse prevention and response?
5. How can the Seniors’ Advocate work with existing bodies and organizations currently engaged in similar work?
6. How can the Seniors’ Advocate best engage seniors to ensure that their voice is heard

I personally do not think there is a  need for a Seniors' advocate and neither do my friends. The classification of different groups within society with their own advocate strikes me as an old, paternalistic, tired approach to social issues.  

When I had the opportunity to work in government I realized that once the questions were framed the government could lead people to the answer they want. I suspect in this exercise the results will be what the government has already decided the answer will be.

The appointing of an advocate hides the real issue, which is in my mind, that the social safety net hat we have is not working. The issues seniors have are the same issues that people with mental illness have, the same issues that people with disabilities have, the same issue that children and parents in poverty have, the same issues that people with dementia have. Each group thinks they have special needs, and that they deserve special attention, and perhaps they do, but the issues of housing, food security, transportation, stigma, education and inclusion (to name a few) are common to all groups. Rather than isolating each group our society should be addressing the common issues and finding ways to improve these for all of us.

I resent the idea that once I reach a certain age, I have somehow lost the capacity to think or advocate for myself. I am a person who has take the term for myself as a Sonic Boomer, because I resent the stigma that society has for  the terms senior, older person,or elderly.

So I do not believe we need a Seniors' Advocate, I believe we need a society that works to address social issues for all and that we need to as a society begin by removing the stigma attached to terms such as mental illness, people in poverty, dementia and people with instabilities.