Supporting elder safety in Indigenous communities requires more than awareness — it requires relationship, trust, and approaches that reflect community realities. Indigenous ways of knowing remind us that wellbeing is rooted in relationships with one another and with community, and that when those relationships are disrupted, harm can occur.

In many communities, service providers are navigating ongoing and complex needs, where responding to crisis can become a constant priority, leaving little time or capacity for prevention. This session acknowledges those realities while creating space to reflect on how prevention can still be supported through relationship, connection, and early engagement.

This session explores how elder abuse is understood within Indigenous contexts, including the impacts of disconnection from family, culture, and community, as well as broader systems and experiences that continue to shape trust, access, and support. Participants will reflect on how these realities influence disclosure, engagement, and response when working alongside older adults.

Grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing and what we learn from community, this session focuses on relationship first, the importance of creating space when working across different ways of understanding, and the role of elders, culture, and community in supporting safety and wellbeing.

This session also speaks to the realities of supporting elder safety, including how ongoing crisis response can shape and at times limit the space for prevention.