10 Senior Mealtime Challenges
You’ve just arrived at Dad’s house and, once again, he’s having toast for dinner. “Why cook,” he laments, “when I’m all alone.” Lack of companionship and cooking for one are among the top mealtime challenges that seniors face, according to research conducted for the Home Instead Senior Care® network.
For fifteen years, the Home Instead Senior Care® franchise network has been devoted to providing seniors with the highest quality care in their own homes, and to arming families with the information they need to make the best decisions about caring for aging loved ones. The Craving Companionship campaign is part of that effort, designed to help seniors connect socially and eat more nutritiously.
“There is no question that having meals with other people in a group setting is preferable to eating alone,” said Carol Greenwood, Ph.D., Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto and Senior Scientist at Baycrest, expert source for the Craving Companionship program. “Seniors who eat alone often have an underlying isolation and depression and lack of social engagement. This leads to low quality of life and a more rapid decline as they age,” Greenwood noted.
Following is the list of challenges that seniors identified in the Home Instead Senior Care network survey as a problem for older adults who live alone.
• Grocery shopping for one (79 percent)
• Lack of companionship during mealtimes (75 percent)
• Cooking for one (74 percent)
• Eating nutritious meals (65 percent)
• Eating three meals a day (65 percent)
• High expense of cooking for one (64 percent)
• Loss of appetite (60 percent)
• Relying too much on convenience food (57 percent)
• Eating too little food (47 percent)
• Eating too much food (38 percent)
Strategies for cooking for one include buying healthy, low-sodium frozen dinners and freezing leftovers. Most any type of food can be frozen including sliced and seeded fruit. For more ideas, please visit: www.MealsAndCompanionship.com.
If you, or any organization of which you are a part, is interested in learning more, please contact our office. We would be happy to speak to your group free of charge about this subject, our services, and even employment opportunities.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Champagne, Human Resource Coordinator
Home Instead Senior Care
1102 S Braddock Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15218
Phone: (412) 731-0733
Rebecca.Champagne@homeinstead.com
