June 17, 2010
Province Commits to Creation of New Abuse Registry to Better Protect Seniors, Vulnerable Persons: Ministers
Manitoba is developing Canada’s first registry of people who abuse vulnerable adults including seniors, and people with disabilities or mental illnesses, Healthy Living, Youth and Seniors Minister Jim Rondeau, Family Services and Consumer Affairs Minister Gord Mackintosh and Labour and Immigration Jennifer Howard, minister responsible for persons with disabilities, announced today.
“An abuse registry for incidents involving vulnerable adults will give caregivers, support agencies and volunteer organizations another tool they need to more thoroughly screen potential employees,” Rondeau said. “Families need to know that we will make every effort to ensure their loved ones are in good, caring hands.”
A provincial committee with members from the departments of Health, and Child and Family Services, along with the Winnipeg Police Service and RCMP, and people who work with seniors and adults with disabilities has been studying what other jurisdictions are doing, and will make recommendations to government for the implementation of a Manitoba abuse registry.
“We need to make every effort to ensure someone with a history of inappropriate behaviour isn’t able to find employment with vulnerable persons,” added Mackintosh. “We’re going to tighten the rules and toughen up the penalties for abuse.”
“Manitoba is already a leader in this area, as one of only two provinces with a child-abuse registry and this effort will build on our commitment to the protection of vulnerable people,” said Howard.
In addition to a registry, the committee is looking at a number of options, improvements and legislative changes that will make it easier to discipline offenders and screen applicants who want to work with vulnerable people. Those options include:
· strengthening the penalties and increasing fines under the Vulnerable Persons Act and working to give other options for discipline if an offender is not facing criminal charges;
· developing strong human-resource policies and training around recruitment, selection, hiring processes and information about alleged offenders and indicators of abuse/neglect;
· providing more training for staff and public education on abuse indicators, abuse investigations and reporting requirements; and
· identifying areas where the Criminal Code could be strengthened to better protect vulnerable adults and lobbying the federal government to make those changes.
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