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Carers vital in helping prevent malnutrition in Welsh elderly
| Published: 28th November 2019 15:03 |
MALNUTRITION in the elderly is rife and it can often go unnoticed but helping prevent starvation in Wales are the carers who work for an award-winning care provider (November, 2019).
Abacare says there is a common misconception that older people naturally lose weight. Causes of malnutrition, such as illness, loneliness and loss of mobility are more common.
Neil Griffiths, Regional Manager at Abacare, which has offices in Swansea and provides care in the surrounding areas, said: “While column inches in our national newspapers and magazines are dedicated to obesity in the young, malnutrition in the elderly is going unnoticed.
“According to Age UK, more than one million people over the age of 65 are malnourished or at risk of malnourishment. The condition is often poorly understood or not dealt with properly.
“Many people over the age of 65 may live alone and will often see no point in cooking themselves a proper meal, instead opting for snack food or microwave meals, which means they aren’t getting the nutrients they need.
“Malnutrition can also be exacerbated due to local shop closures, cuts to meals on wheels services or lunch clubs as well as illness, immobility and even bereavement.
“Addressing malnutrition needs to be a key priority for everyone involved in an elderly person’s life. Our carers are vital in helping prevent our elderly service users from becoming malnourished. When visiting a service user, our carers can make them breakfast, lunch or an evening meal and as part of their care plan, they can manage their nutritional care. They can also help them with their food shopping if needed.”
Abacare operates a professional Care Management Team that is committed to providing high quality care to individuals in their own homes.
The large team of trained, specialist, care workers provide positive based outcomes and person-centred care to people throughout the UK.
Neil added: “It’s super important to raise awareness of elderly malnutrition and we would urge anyone out there who has an elderly family member, friend or neighbour, to ensure they are eating properly if they are not receiving social care visits. Anyone interested in having one of our expert carers visit them or a loved-one should get in touch via www.abacare.org.uk.”
Abacare has recently launched its new website www.abacare.org.uk for people looking for high quality care for themselves or loved ones and also for those seeking a career in care.
It is looking for kind, honest, caring and reliable individuals who wish to have a stable and long-term career in care, and who would like to forge rewarding relationships with the service users they care for.
Neil continued: “Being a carer is a highly skilled, professional vocational occupation that is essential to the fabric of our society and the beauty of a job for life means people can start at the very bottom and work their way up with training and qualifications.
“In today’s changing world of employment, we pride ourselves on being able to offer long-term job security and career prospects.
“No experience is necessary to become a carer as free, full training is offered, which includes a company induction, first aid, information on dementia, health and safety, food safety, infection control, handling medication and moving and handling service users, with the opportunity to achieve Qualification and Credit Framework (QCF) after the initial three months probationary period.
“New recruits are given free uniforms, access to national staff discount scheme for all major brands as well as 28 days paid holiday, paid travel between calls and paid mileage.”
Abacare also offers FaceTime or Skype interviews to candidates in order to meet the demands of the modern jobseeker. Its view is that busy people wanting a career change can ‘meet’ the team via FaceTime or similar applications and find out about the roles it has to offer, as well as meet a couple of team members and, if they are about, also say ‘hello’ to a carer too.
Its core values, instilled into every staff member, include ‘make us proud’, ‘focus on our service users’ wellbeing’, ‘communicate, listen well and speak with respect’, ‘be passionate, honest, caring and considerate’, ‘recruit and develop the very best’ and ‘lead by example’.
It believes it offers inspiring work for inspirational people.
It is a member of the United Kingdom Homecare Association, Ceretas (formerly British Association of Domiciliary Care), The National Homecare Council and The Information Commissioners Office (Data Protection). It is also registered with the Care Inspectorate Wales.
For more information about Abacare, please call 01792 457766 or visit www.abacare.org.uk. Alternatively, please follow the company on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/Yn4zmS or on Twitter by visiting www.twitter.com/visitabacare.
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