Canadians were shocked this week to learn of an extreme case of elder abuse in Scarborough, Ontario.

A man and his wife were charged with failing to provide the necessities of life, after police and paramedics discovered the man’s 68-year-old mother living in the couple’s unheated garage. The woman is being treated in hospital for frostbite and other injuries.

The “mentally incompetent” woman was banished to the “filthy” garage last November. According to reports, her son and legal guardian didn’t want his mother living in the family home because she was incontinent and suffering from dementia.

While this horrible incident is particularly troubling, one federal study estimates that between 4% and 10% of Canadian seniors are victims of elder abuse: financial, emotional and/or physical. Needless to say, an unknown number of elder abuse cases go unreported every year.

In this particular situation, the woman’s son was reportedly “receiving hundreds of government dollars each month to help care for her.” When a family decides to take on the responsibility for the care of an aging parent, financial assistance is undoubtedly important.

However, financial support is just the beginning. This tragic case illustrates the need for a complete support system, to assist both the caregivers, their parents and the entire family — emotionally, socially and physically, not just monetarily.

When a family takes on the responsibility of caring for a senior parent in their home, they need to know that community services such as Ontario’s Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) are in place, designed to prevent situations from deteriorating to such an extreme.

There are also specially trained professionals such as elder mediators who can facilitate conversations to help the family organize and make plans that will be in the best interests of the elderly person. The introduction of a neutral third person also helps minimize conflict that can arise when there are disagreements, and high emotion.

In the case of this Scarborough family, neighbours told reporters they were not aware that the elderly woman had moved in with her son and daughter in law months earlier. Isolation is a contributing factor in elder abuse. A strong community support system might have prevented this tragic case, and perhaps many others.

As more and more people face with the prospect of caring for senior parents in their homes, incidents like this one illustrate the importance of the elder mediation process, in which family members come together to create the best possible living situation for everyone involved.