Jean Benoit Legault, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL — A new initiative involving the organization Les Petits Frères aims to tackle malnutrition among the elderly, a scourge that existed before the pandemic but seems to have increased during the health crisis.
The project, announced on Tuesday, details of which were first revealed to The Canadian Press, aims primarily to equip the organization’s volunteers to be better able to recognize and address malnutrition that seniors can suffer from to react.
The three factsheets developed will also be distributed online to “multiply the eyes” that can spot the problem, explained Professor Nancy Presse, an expert from the University of Sherbrooke who is taking part in the initiative.
“Senior citizens who live alone are behind closed doors, behind apartment or house doors,” said Ms. Presse. We asked ourselves how to identify those who have problems such as B. Difficulty shopping for groceries, financial difficulties… how do we find them? And we came up with the idea of calling community organizations (…) that have volunteers in contact with seniors.”
A survey conducted last fall of around 300 seniors accompanied by Les Petits Frères found that 25% of them were not eating three meals a day and were struggling to get groceries at an affordable price. All survey participants were 75 years and older and lived on the island of Montreal or Longueuil.
In another survey conducted online between June and December 2022 of 68 seniors accompanied by the Little Brothers volunteers, 41% of participants said they had lost weight involuntarily. “Unintentional, unintentional weight loss is always a red flag,” Nancy told Presse. Always.”
A quarter of the seniors surveyed said they had difficulty eating. Mobility problems, health problems and a grocery store far from home are cited as the main explanations.
Almost half of the participants stated that they find it difficult or sometimes difficult to prepare meals, mainly because they lack the motivation to do so. Almost eight out of ten seniors reported having difficulty eating because of physical problems such as pain or loss of strength. 44 percent named problems with chewing, swallowing and choking.
“We get updates on (elderly malnutrition) quite a lot, but personally I think that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said Joanne Parmenter, area director of Les Petits Frères du Grand Montréal.
A little under half of the 1,000 seniors the organization supports in the area can no longer eat properly, she continues, often because they are now alone and don’t want to eat alone.
Additionally, during the online survey, 31% of respondents said that “eating in good company” would help them increase their appetite. 37 percent of seniors reported eating alone every day.
“These people still have a pride,” Ms. Parmenter said. They raise their hands less and less to get help, they no longer have the energy to fight to actually get their needs met. What’s the use, they say to themselves, because they really are being left alone.
An empty fridge, a fridge full of expired groceries, seemingly innocuous phrases or baggy clothing are among the signs that could draw the attention of those who work with seniors, whether volunteers or neighbors.
One of the files is therefore dedicated exclusively to these alarm signals. Another attempts to publicize senior malnutrition, and a final offers some ways to deal with the problem.
“We wanted it to speak to Mr. and Mrs. Everyone,” Ms. Parmenter said. What do you need to know to keep elders from falling into the malnutrition spiral?”
The goal is not to turn volunteers into health workers, Ms. Presse said. On the other hand, we want to empower them to start a dialogue with the senior, make them understand that they have a problem and see how we can accompany them in finding community organizations that can help them.
Not all seniors have access to the internet or are comfortable using it, she added. It can then be difficult for them to find the available resources, further increasing their isolation.
“It will make sure that we don’t find (the older person) in six months at 87 pounds very thin and then very fragile to get all sorts of infections or fall because he lost his muscle mass,” the researcher illustrated.
In addition to the Sherbrooke University Research Center and the Les Petits Frères organization, the City of Montreal and the Regional Health Department are also involved in this project.