Why we must save Meals on Wheels
Meals on Wheels services are fast disappearing but they are still depended on by many elderly people Credit: David Rose
I heard recently about a lady in
her late eighties - let's call her Dora - for whom her Meals on Wheels
service was literally a God-send. She lived in the family home with
limited mobility and no close relatives nearby. After her husband
died, she became rather depressed and couldn't bring herself to cook
any more. Getting to and from the shops was tiring and although her
neighbours were friendly, they were busy much of the time. So the
lady who came to deliver her meals was often her only daily contact
and she very much looked forward to her visits. In fact it was the
meals lady who noticed one day that Dora was seriously unwell;
delirious and with a raging temperature - it turned to be with
cellulitis. She rang for an ambulance and after Dora was treated with
intravenous antibiotics in hospital, she got better and was able to
return home.
Unfortunately, for
many older people in this situation there is no longer any
Meals on Wheels operating in their area, so nobody would have
come to help. A service which was once considered a mainstay of
community support for older people and which has always been about
much more than just something nutritious to eat, is rapidly
disappearing, along with many other precious local services, including
lunch clubs, that help older people to stay fit and well, and
connected to the world around them.
Last week was Meals on Wheels Week, a timely reminder that
there are estimated to be around 300,000 people aged 65 and over in
England who need help with eating, or who have difficulty eating
unaided. The latest findings from the Malnutrition Task Force show that in just three
years spending on Meals on Wheels for older people aged 65 and over
has fallen by 47 per cent, from £42.1m in 2010/11 to £22.3m in
2013/14. This means 46,000 older people no longer receive a service -
and this at a time when our older population is growing.
The
Government's recent introduction of Direct Payments -
under which the needy are allotted a sum of money by councils, to
spend on the services they desire - will in some cases give older
people the option of purchasing from alternative ‘Meals on Wheels’
providers. But cuts to local authority budgets and in turn a
tightening of the eligibility criteria for receiving help from social
services has meant that this option is not open to all the older
people who are likely to need it.
In some areas volunteers have stepped in to keep a meals on wheels-type service going, making a fantastic difference to older people who would otherwise have been thrown back on their own resources. But these initiatives are very patchy and most older people are not lucky enough to benefit.
In some areas volunteers have stepped in to keep a meals on wheels-type service going, making a fantastic difference to older people who would otherwise have been thrown back on their own resources. But these initiatives are very patchy and most older people are not lucky enough to benefit.
Without a hot nutritious meal, an
older person's health inevitably suffers and their resilience is often
undermined. Estimates suggest at least a million older people are
malnourished or at risk of malnourishment in our communities. This is
extremely disturbing, given that the condition is largely avoidable if
the right help and support are there.
Malnutrition is often thought to be a condition which only affects
people overseas, but the latest evidence published by the HSCIC (Health and Social Care
Information Centre) shows it to be a growing problem much closer to
home. And sadly, Age UK fears that the prevalence of malnutrition
among older people is likely to worsen, given how quickly Meals on
Wheels services are being closed down.
At this rate there won’t be any Meals on Wheels provision left at
all in a few years’ time. And most worrying of all, this is part of a
broader trend whereby the safety net of preventive and community
support services for older people is being whittled away by year after
year of Government cuts. The Chancellor now has a 'once in three
years' opportunity in the Spending Review to begin to reverse the
decline and we very much hope he will take it. Because growing numbers
of older people need the support of simple but important services like
Meals on Wheels. Investing in them makes good economic sense - as well
as being the right thing to do for many older people like Dora, who
are otherwise often entirely alone.
Caroline Abrahams is the Charity Director at Age UK
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