Elderly migrants 'going hungry in homes'
JeBy Jewel Topsfield
DeDecember 19, 2008
ELDERLY migrants are going hungry in nursing homes and shunning meals on wheels because they cannot stomach Anglo dishes such as sausages and peas.
Despite growing numbers of non-English speakers in nursing homes, interpreters are not being used to convey critical health information to staff. With migrants expected to make up 23 per cent of all people aged over 65 by 2011, experts are pointing to an emerging crisis.
They say there is a desperate need for more bilingual workers and for the Federal Government to fund ethnic welfare groups to provide aged-care services such as meals on wheels.
Irene Bouzo, aged-care policy officer for the Ethnic Communities' Council of Victoria, said the first thing elderly migrants said to her was often: "I can't eat Vegemite on toast, I can't eat sausages and peas."
She said the problem was not limited to migrants in nursing homes but included those in the community, who often eschewed meals on wheels services that did not offer ethnic dishes.
Abridged
SOURCE: The Age
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