Meals on Wheels
Once people get to a certain point in their lives, they simply cannot do the everyday necessities that younger people take for granted. Some of those necessities include picking up after themselves, going out to buy food, and cooking what they buy. There are many ways people can help and one of those ways is Meals on Wheels. Meals on Wheels is an amazing organization because it is set up all over the country and the people who work there are dedicated to helping the people who need help, and some elderly people really need to be helped.
Need:
The problem that many elderly people have to face is that after a certain point in their lives they can not take care of themselves. “Most but not all persons in need of long-term care are elderly. Approximately 63% are persons aged 65 and older (6.3 million); the remaining 37% are 64 years of age and younger (3.7 million)” (FCA).
Also “[i]n 2001, 610,000 people over the age of 60, or about 1.4 percent, were deemed to be facing hunger. But since then, the rate climbed, jumping with the recession, and then continued to climb until plateauing in recent years. In 2015, the last year in the analysis, 2.1 million people over age 60 were facing hunger, or about 3.1 percent. Over 14 years, in other words, the proportion of older people facing hunger have doubled” (The Washington Post).
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Instead of a bunch of women taking food to people who lost their homes, volunteers go to elderly people’s homes and deliver food that people prepared in the Meals on wheels kitchen prepared. The incredibly dedicated volunteers drop off the food and they often look around the people’s houses just to make sure everything is in order. Meals on Wheels has definitely evolved over the years, but for the better. Before Meals on Wheels was around there were other ways of helping older people. It all started with the Great Depression, which sparked the age the nursing
Kawartha Food Share distributes meals, and emergency care needs to over 7,000 people every month. The food share has continuingly been supportive to the needy for 15 years. While this is the case, the City and Country of Peterborough and its 37 member agencies served 6.5 million dollars worth of food over the years! Kawartha Food Share is 15000 sq. foot warehouse and is rented, so even being a non-profit organization, has to pay rent. This ranges from four city food banks, six housing projects, four meal programs, etc.
They provide food to over 46 million people in need through their network of 200 food banks. They also work diligently on raising awareness by partnering with high-profile celebrities to create effective public service announcements. Though they are doing an amazing job tackling the hunger issue and spreading knowledge regarding hunger in America, there are two areas that may require adjustments.
This paper will review the many aspects of long-term care problems and many challenges there are within Long-Term care. We will look at rising costs within long-Term Care, patient abuse, will look at the quality of life, shortages of nurses and demand that the elderly are putting on the medical field. The type of care that Long-Term Care had been giving to its patients and the changes within Long-Term Care.
The concept of Meals on Wheels originated in Great Britain in 1939, when the Women’s Volunteer Service for Civil Defense served meals to elderly and disabled during the Blitz. The National Council of Jewish Women started Meals on Wheels in Indianapolis. Mrs. Morris L. Jacobs...
The Food Stamp Act of 1964 was first enacted to help alleviate the issue of surplus farm commodities and help poor or unemployed families. However, over the years the focus of the program has shifted to provide low-income families, the elderly, and individuals with disabilities an affordable and adequate diet.
Taking care of the individuals that are getting older takes many different needs. Most of these needs cannot be given from the help of a family. This causes the need of having to put your love one into a home and causing for the worry of how they will be treated. It is important for the family and also the soon to be client to feel at home in their new environment. This has been an issue with the care being provided for each individual, which has lead to the need of making sure individuals have their own health care plan.
African American senior citizens face a health care crisis too. They have worked all of their lives to secure retirement, but their retirement has been threatened because of the rising cost of long-term medical care. Insurance companies have failed to provide affordable long-term care, protection that most senior citizens need. This lack of long term care and affordability has been a serious problem for the health care system. In some cities, the shortage of hospital beds is so serious that it is common for patients to stay in emergency rooms before they can be admitted to an inpatient room (Drake 109). More than one thousand hospital beds are occupied by people who could be better care for in nursing homes or through home health care (Drake 110). Of the disabled elderly 1.3 million reside in nursing homes (Drake 10). These patients are unable to perform two or more of the basic activities of daily living without assistance.
Upon growing older there are many decisions to be made. Among one of the most difficult and perhaps most important decisions is where the elder person will live and how long-term care needs will be met when he/she is no longer capable of doing so independently due to the incapacity that accompanies many with old age. Nursing homes seem to be the popular choice for people no matter the race, gender, or socioeconomic status with 1.5 million Americans being admitted to them yearly.[3] Because nursing homes are in such a high demand and are not cheap, $77.9 billion was spent for nursing home care in the United States in 2010 alone, they are under criticism of many professions including the legal profession, which is in the process of establishing elder law as a defense to issues with in the elder community. Nursing homes have a duty to provide many things to the elderly including medical, social, pharmaceutical, and dietary services so that the individual may maintain the highest well-being possible.[4] Stated another way 'a nursing facility must care for its residents in such a manner and in such an environment as will promote maintenance or enhancement of the q...
Kick, Ella. "Overview: Health Care and the Aging Population: What Are Today's Challenges?" The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. N.p., n.d. Web.
As I said earlier, one of the problem among homeless population is lack of of access to healthcare. Many homeless people were not even aware of their health problems and some of them did not even care. As a public health nurse, being aware of your surrounding and understanding the need of the people is helpful in order to provide better care. Homeless population are very vulnerable and they need a lot support from the people. I had fun doing this volunteer and it made me happy hearing homeless people say thank you for our effort in feeding
There are national aid programs like SNAP, the UN World Food Programme, and Feeding America, trying to reduce hunger by providing access to food, resources, and the means to keep up those efforts. There are also councils like the UN Social and Economic Council, trying to implement policies in order to reduce and prevent food insecurity. Teaching people that having sustainable development is better than just relying on aid is also very important.
For as long as we can remember, many people have been experiencing hardships and worries, with little to no income being one of the largest. In the U.S there are a few programs that can help populations facing these difficulties obtain imperitive things they need. One of these benificial programs is WIC. WIC stands for Women, Infants and Children; and is a special supplemental nutrition program that targets nutritionally at risk mothers infants and children, due to low income. The program helps aid families in the effort to provide nutritious foods, information and counseling on healthy eating, and to provide referrels to other healthcare and government benifit programs like welfare and social services. (Food and Nutrition service, 2013)
Many countries globally are faced with unprecedented demographic changes from high mortality and fertility to low mortality and fertility, giving rise to an ageing population. Population ageing is profound and enduring, and has major consequences and implications for all facets of human life. With a larger proportion of older people, one of the major concerns is health care. The health of older persons generally declines with age and some illness are more likely to be associated with older people. One of such illness is dementia. As the life expectancies of the general population have dramatically increased since the turn of the century, more and more people are at risk of developing dementia (National Institute of Aging, 2000).
I also had the privilege of helping with the Meals on Wheels non profit organization. My grandfather used to be a Meals on Wheels recipient and he would share with me how he enjoyed looking forward to their company and a hot meal daily. I volunteered because I wanted to give back and help someone else’s loved one in the same way. It was very rewarding delivering hot meals to people who didn’t have the means of getting one as well as being there for them to talk to. Overall, it was a very humbling experience, it made me realize just how blessed I am and how much I take for granted daily.
leftovers that they can salvage. Food banks are almost the same thing as food rescue, they also work with their local businesses. Except the food rescues will donate five to ten times more food. Some charities will also purchase their food for their local food pantry. They will hold a donation to help raise money to purchase food for their pantry.