An overseas trip to visit family has left a Ukrainian senior homeless.
Larysa Sotina arrived in Calgary late last year to visit her children.
“Something did not go well in our relationship. And then it was broken,” Sotina told Global News.
She was asked to move out, but being new to the province, Sotina did not have a support network to lean on outside of her family.
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It wasn’t until Sotina arrived at the emergency department and was treated for injuries consistent with physical abuse that she was able to find a way out. Police connected her to the Kerby Center’s senior abuse shelter.
The Kerby Center operates a nine-bed shelter, one of which is earmarked for the CPS Elder Abuse Response Team.
Shelter manager Mari-Anne Godlonton said it is very rare that the shelter is not at capacity.
“There has never been anything where we don’t have enough customers,” Godlonton said.
And the Kerby Center has seen another troubling trend: abuse.
“For a lot of our seniors, it’s not just physical abuse and emotional abuse and psychological abuse, but a lot with our seniors, with a lot of seniors we see is financial abuse,” Godlonton said. Neglect and abandonment are two other types of elder abuse.
The 24-hour elder abuse resource line that the Kerby runs also fields many calls about abuse.
“We’re seeing an increase in those calls because Christmas is hard, Christmas is hard. You are around your family or you are not around your family. And so at Christmas time there are a lot of feelings and a lot of emotions and crying and sadness,” added Godlonton.
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Sotina said she was also subjected to abuse by her family.
“Physically, emotionally and spiritually. Yes, all of that,” she said.
“When clients come here, it’s to provide a safe place for them to be, to start their lives again,” Godlonton said.
Seniors usually stay for a maximum of 90 days, after which longer-term shelter is found for them. But it became an increasingly difficult task.
The past three years have been particularly difficult for the center to serve seniors in the Calgary area.
“Since COVID for the last three years we’ve turned away at least 300 seniors every year because when they needed a bed we were full,” Kerby Center CEO Larry Mathieson said. “It’s terrible, to be honest.”
A recent report from the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters said more than 11,500 women and seniors had to be turned away from shelters across the province because the shelters were at capacity. Only one in six callers was able to find shelter.
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The Kerby Center is part of the county network of shelters, the first purpose-built elder abuse shelter in North America. With more funding, it could expand its shelter spaces to 14.
“Corporate donations and individual donations will help us fund the beds,” Mathieson said. “Throughout the year, the entire shelter network always needs financial support and volunteer support.
“Certainly during this time of year we could use your help.”
With nowhere else to turn, Sotina was lucky to get help from the Kerby Center to start a new life, “it’s starting from scratch.”
And after conversations with other Kerby residents, Sotina said they all have the same noble goal.
“To live very well later. And to try to forget what happened.”
For more information about elder abuse, resources, or to inquire about shelter space, call the Elder Abuse Resource Line at -403-705-3250.
If you suspect a case of elder abuse, call the CPS non-emergency line at 403-266-1234.
– With files from Jill Croteau, Global News
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
