Status of Women committee  First, thank you so much for sharing that with us. It informs our work to know that in the Chinese community, a woman at the age of 70-odd years was feeling so bad that she felt the need and did feel the need and thankfully told people about it. I'm sorry; I feel very bad that people did not believe her.

Status of Women committee  Yes, and just to sum that up, as soon as we pay attention to the factors involved with these challenges, changes will be made in order to adapt to the people.

Status of Women committee  That is accurate. There is a way to communicate. Professionals know exactly how to communicate with senior men and senior women, because the interaction is very different.

Status of Women committee  And if seniors have access in their communities to feel safe out the door, then if they are suffering from abuse they can go out of their door and seek help.

Status of Women committee  Agency analysts observed the differences between men and women. This is very important, because women have a life expectancy of 83 and men have a life expectancy of 78. For women who are now 80 years and older, men played a very important role, because they were responsible for finances.

Status of Women committee  I want to talk a little bit about that, because it is an important relationship, but there's a relationship as well at the community level. Public health really happens locally, and public health prevention and promotion happen through an unbelievable network of people who may be located in individual provinces and territories but who have links with community organizations.

Status of Women committee  That's a great question. I don't want to pass any bucks, because I will hate myself for doing that, but the New Horizons initiative is the responsibility of the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, so they will come here and talk about New Horizons. I would like to talk about something similar, which is age-friendly communities.

Status of Women committee  Well, let me talk about communities generally. Definitely, communities in general are very much part of the initiative. New Horizons, as well, looks at the voluntary sector and looks at developing a solid infrastructure at the community level so that seniors don't feel isolated, that they have an out.

Status of Women committee  I think that's where the reluctance is. That's where society's awareness is growing. We've all been taught to definitely respect our elders and we've been taught that for a reason, but in so doing we sometimes give too much deference to seniors and we do not want to intervene because of that deference.

Status of Women committee  One can listen to that list and assume that several things may be the cause. If a person stops eating, maybe that's a cause of disease or there's illness. It's a little bit like detective work. That's why I say it's a relationship of trust. Oftentimes I find, especially for professionals, that if their instincts are up, they should be aware of those instincts, because people have a lot of experience, and if it doesn't fit the norm it usually is not the norm.

Status of Women committee  Yes, we'll come back.

Status of Women committee  If there's time I'll add one more thing to that. It's a critical issue.

Status of Women committee  It's a quick thought.

Status of Women committee  That's a great question. We're pleased as officials to be able to talk about it, because the more we talk, the more people become aware—at every level. In our experience, one has to tread carefully about being able to recognize the signs, because you can present signs that could be something else.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for your question. Balancing allocations and priority spending, including efforts to eliminate violence, etc., is always a challenge. Over the past three years that this program has been in effect, it has received $13 million. This involved four departments. At PHAC, we allocated $1.4 million to this initiative.