At a time when approximately one million older adults in the UK are considered malnourished, the government there has decided to cut back on meal services which provides food for those in need. In fact, the last 10 years has seen a drop from 40 million food service meals to a mere 19 million meals, a number that the National Association of Care Catering (NACC) estimates will be further reduced within a year due to social care budget cuts.(1)
Furthermore, the shift is detrimental to overall well-being, threatening to impact a social network that many elderly have relied on, and enjoyed, for years.
According to Neel Radia, the NACC National Chair, “the Community Meals Service is a crucial preventative service that enables older people to live in their own homes for longer, whilst maintaining their physical and emotional wellbeing and reducing pressure on the NHS.” The NHS, or the National Health Service, is the a publicly-funded health service that aims to ensure the overall health of residents.
“The abolition of community meals services is incredibly short-sighted and cuts a lifeline for many older people who can face social isolation and loneliness,” she says. “A visit to a Luncheon Club or the delivery of a meal provides the regular friendly human contact that we all need, and the vital wellbeing and safety checks that vulnerable older people require, particularly in the colder winter months.”
U.S. elderly population also impacted
Similar situations have been felt in the United States, most notably during 2013 when meal services, which were already threatened by economic recession, faced the possibility of more serious setbacks due to sequestration. However, unlike the UK where the future of meals for the elderly remains in question, it seems to have improved in the U.S.(2)
In early 2014, Congress replaced the $46 million lost in during previous sequestration, providing senior citizens in need with the assurance that they’d have access to nutritious meals once again. Of this change, Meals On Wheels Association of America president Ellie Hollander expressed appreciation that such “. . . critical funding for vulnerable seniors” was restored.
Malnutrition and lack of understanding about elderly a growing problem
Still, the overall elderly population tends to go unrecognized in society.
According to the Journal of Nursing, it’s thought that many people, including doctors and nurses, lack the ability to detect changes in behaviors among the elderly that could lead to malnutrition. Such behaviors include weight and appetite loss, as well as physical changes that often occur in the aging body such as loss of a sense of taste and smell and the fact that these individuals tend to feel full faster than younger people.(3)
Upwards of 10 percent of elderly people in community settings are estimated to be malnourished as are about 60 percent of people older than 65 who are hospitalized and up to 85 percent of those in long-term care facilities.
Sources for this article include:
(1) rt.com
(2) www.huffingtonpost.com
(3) rnjournal.com
( http://www.rawfoodhealthwatch.com/ )
