Meals for the elderly (2012 SIC cuts)

[hazyday83]

(** mod edit - thread title changed **)

 

I am in dismay again they are mentioning closing the Baltasound school but are they really going to put bairns on a ferry every day and in bad weather on one of the strongest tides. I wish councillers based on the Mainland would come and trial the jouney for a week and reallly throw out the idea.

 

Fixed link would be the answer but Unst would be 3rd on the list to be considered behind Bressay and then Whalsay who's schools are not being threatened.

 

Frozen meals for elderly people is a total outrage and surely it would cost more to provide this than to make a pan of mince and tatties or soup for example. plain, ordinary grub for our treasured residents.

 

I understand about cost cutting and saving reserves for a rainy day but surely THIS is the rainy day they talk about.

[JustMe]

"Meals on Wheels" is more than just food. It is daily human contact (well 5 days a week) making sure people are OK. Take away the food delivery and replace it with a daily visit from a social worker?........saving little if anything. Or maybe move the people getting Meals on Wheels into care homes at much higher cost. And it is giving a well balanced hot meal to people who might not otherwise bother cooking anything (including sticking their frozen meal in the microwave).

[mogling]

In the 'country' areas, elderly, disabled and vulnerable people who are unable to prepare a proper hot meal for themselves currently get Meals on Wheels delivered 3 times a week. That's only 3 hot meals a week. {Do folk in the Town get 5 days??}

 

The cost of providing all recipients with a microwave would be steep - or are folk expected to buy their own?

A lot of people do not have a freezer, so would have nowhere to store a week/fortnight/months worth of frozen meals - do they intend to buy everyone a freezer, or are folk expected to pay for and find room to keep one themselves?

 

There are a lot of elderly, disabled and vulnerable people who would not be able to operate a microwave, let alone operate one safely, to safely reheat a meal for themselves.

To put in a paid Home Help every time to reheat and serve the meal, with their travel costs, would be very expensive.

 

And yes, the Meals on Wheels delivery person is often the only human contact someone living alone might have in a day. They are also unofficial Social Care Workers - if the person is not responding to their knock, the delivery person raises the alarm.

 

 

I feel that Meals on Wheels is one essential service which should not be tampered with except to increase the deliveries to 7 days a week and have the quality enhanced, and which could be paid for out of the Charitable Trust fund which was supposed to benefit people in Shetland.

[JustMe]

In the 'country' areas, elderly, disabled and vulnerable people who are unable to prepare a proper hot meal for themselves currently get Meals on Wheels delivered 3 times a week. That's only 3 hot meals a week. {Do folk in the Town get 5 days??}

Well I live in a "country" area and the elderly person near me gets their hot meal 5 days a week.........Monday to Friday including Christmas Day and the day after Up Helly Aa. And yes I do think there is a case for increasing the service to 7 days a week. And I do know of a Meals on Wheels driver finding someone collapsed and calling the emergency services.

[MuckleJoannie]

There is also the social aspect of someone calling along each day to consider.

[Keedle]

At the Lerwick Community council meeting Councillor wills said that the Freefield Centre was not an ideal building! It has a bus stop outside its on the flat so wheelchair accessable and toilets for people with a disability.

Surely if it is not a suitable building why hasn't it been closed down ?

The building hasn't changed much in the past ten years I have been going in it.

Infact it has greatly improved with more room in the dining room for wheelchair users and handgrips etc in toilets.

The Pensioners rest room was closed a number of years ago Councillors please think hard before closing the Freefield too!

[JustMe]

At the Lerwick Community council meeting Councillor wills said that the Freefield Centre was not an ideal building! It has a bus stop outside its on the flat so wheelchair accessable and toilets for people with a disability.

Surely if it is not a suitable building why hasn't it been closed down ?

The building hasn't changed much in the past ten years I have been going in it.

Infact it has greatly improved with more room in the dining room for wheelchair users and handgrips etc in toilets.

The Pensioners rest room was closed a number of years ago Councillors please think hard before closing the Freefield too!

Well closing the pensioners rest room is now a done deal although maybe it is a good time to remind councillors that the Viking Bus Station provides a warm dry secure place for the elderly to wait for a bus or just to stop for a rest.

 

Freefield provides a good meal, or so I am told as until recently I did not even know that I was entitled to use the facility. Maybe I should get in there before they close it. And if Freefield comes out of a council budget and they are determined to save whatever pittance they save by closing it dare I say that maybe this is something the Charitable Trust could legitimately take over.

[JustMe]

There is also the social aspect of someone calling along each day to consider.

Does anyone know if recipients are charged for their meal?. If not then perhaps this could be something to consider for those who can afford to pay. But for an old person living alone I am sure that there is great value in having someone popping in to deliver lunch........far more than money alone.

[fusion]

No one notice that unless volinteers come forward, that all junior youth clubs are to close in Shetland, with all funding being removed.

Thats all clubs that primary children go to will close! So what hapens to them now? Some clubs cant get paid staff to turn up never mind people doing it for nothing, but the sports lot will still go to the island games costing us what?!

[Keedle]

Meals on wheels cost £2.85 for a two course meal.

[engineer21]

south meals on wheels are provided by volenteers i know as my granny 70 odd volenteers to deliver them. not sure about the cooking etc tho.

[Para Handy]

There is also the social aspect of someone calling along each day to consider.

Does anyone know if recipients are charged for their meal?. If not then perhaps this could be something to consider for those who can afford to pay. But for an old person living alone I am sure that there is great value in having someone popping in to deliver lunch........far more than money alone.

 

My late mother was charged for her meals and it was just three days a week

they came to her.

 

And the trouble JustMe is!

Most of the old folks don’t have a big fat expenses account like our greedy councillors. Who if they wish to! Can submit falsification of their expenses.

Say the need for all of them to get Ipads, a free connection to the new internet cable. Just because they are councillors or free parking anywhere, like some of the councils down south. Are now doing

So how about an internet connection in the local hospitals that patients can pay for if they have a netbook etc.

I’m willing to bet they would not think of such a thing.

And just because you have been elected it does not mean you are automatiley trustworthy either

Hence the rubbish about the charitable trust doing the rounds just now.

If everybody on Shetlink was to make a list of things the current council has wasted money on

I would not be surprised if we all came up with one thing everyone else missed out.

[George.]

There is also the social aspect of someone calling along each day to consider.

Does anyone know if recipients are charged for their meal?. If not then perhaps this could be something to consider for those who can afford to pay. But for an old person living alone I am sure that there is great value in having someone popping in to deliver lunch........far more than money alone.

 

My late mother was charged for her meals and it was just three days a week

they came to her.

 

And the trouble JustMe is!

Most of the old folks don’t have a big fat expenses account like our greedy councillors. Who if they wish to! Can submit falsification of their expenses.

Say the need for all of them to get Ipads, a free connection to the new internet cable. Just because they are councillors or free parking anywhere, like some of the councils down south. Are now doing

So how about an internet connection in the local hospitals that patients can pay for if they have a netbook etc.

I’m willing to bet they would not think of such a thing.

And just because you have been elected it does not mean you are automatiley trustworthy either

Hence the rubbish about the charitable trust doing the rounds just now.

If everybody on Shetlink was to make a list of things the current council has wasted money on

I would not be surprised if we all came up with one thing everyone else missed out.

 

How right you are folks. What little they get for all that they have done, for all those years

[JustMe]

Have to admit that I would be hard pressed to pay £2.85 a day for a meal five days a week if I wanted to maintain all the other things I spend my limited income on. But I think we should all worry if people stopped having Meals on Wheels because of the cost.

[Spinner72]

There are a lot of elderly, disabled and vulnerable people who would not be able to operate a microwave, let alone operate one safely, to safely reheat a meal for themselves.

To put in a paid Home Help every time to reheat and serve the meal, with their travel costs, would be very expensive.

 

But it would come out of a different budget, so it would still be considered a "saving".

 

This is what is most worrying about so many of these "cuts" - most of them ultimately end up costing more overall, but none of these costs are reflected in any reports.