Survey of Home-Delivered Meals Programs

Abstract

MEALS ON WHEELS programs provide a means of delivering meals on a regular basis to people who are unable to leave their homes or whose physical conditions or home environment would otherwise preclude the preparation of meals which meet their specific normal or therapeutic nutritional needs. Although still in the developmental stage, this individualized service is designed to help the recipient maintain or restore his health, to hasten recuperation during convalescence, and to enable him to attain the highest possible level of independence without unnecessary institutionalization. The Public Health Service's Division of Chronic Diseases fosters the development of meals on wheels services as a part of or in conjunction with out-of-hospital programs for the chronically ill and aged. To provide baseline data to professional personnel of home care programs, the division conducted a limited study of programs known to be operating in 1962. The findings: reveal useful information, not previously available, on the characteristics of existing portable-meals programs and indicate the possibility that the type of person receiving the service is in need of additional health services in the home. Data from the survey emphasized the need for a depth study of home-delivered meals services, and this is being done by the National Council of Aging under a special grant from the Community Health Services and Facilities Act of the Public Health Service. The report will be available as a supplement to the May 1965 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. In the first linited survey, questionnaires were sent to 25 known programs. Each organization was requested to complete two sets of forms if possible. The first form described program activities and administration, and the second form was an individual report of persons served by meals on wheels in the latter half of 1962. Twenty-two programs submitted the activity form; two programs were found to be inoperative, and one program did not respond. Sixteen programs submitted individual forms for a total of 439 persons. The persons served by the 6 programs which did not submit this form represented approximately 20 percent of all the patients receiving services in the 22 programs.