Angry families afraid of repercussions

Photo / Alan Gibson

Age concern receives frequent complaints about food in rest homes.

In one case in Auckland, individually packaged meals, provided by a catering company, were too difficult for residents to open.

"The staff were very busy and weren't paying enough attention. They would come back around and take away the unopened meals and the person wouldn't get a chance to say, 'Hang on, I haven't eaten'," spokeswoman Janferie Bryce-Chapman said.

Other complaints involved food being served cold and meals that were constantly unappetising.

"They'll give them cauliflower, cheese sauce and potatoes, so it's all the same bland colour and then they'll put it on a white plate," Bryce-Chapman said.

"The rest homes are paid to care for the people and food is an important part of this. We have an obesity problem in New Zealand, yet what we see is so many old people are actually suffering from malnutrition."

Complaints upheld by Age Concern or the Health and Disability Commission are resolved by talking with rest-home owners about practices.

But residents' families say they are afraid to complain for fear of repercussions.

One woman said she often took biscuits into the rest home where her mother lived because her mum didn't get enough to eat there.

"They advertise delicious home-cooked meals, but it's a bunch of lies. My husband would divorce me if I was putting this stuff on the table," she said.

Meals were often a cold potato with sauce or a single sausage, but they improved on Sundays when visitor numbers were highest, she said.

"There's old people who can't feed themselves and can't speak, and they just get wheeled away before they get to actually eat their dinner. They are just fading away."

Sally Elliot, who worked as a rest home cleaner and carer for two years, said residents were fed "minuscule" amounts of food.

"I know the older people aren't active, but their meal would be served on a bread and butter plate, it was that small. A couple of us night staff used to give them extra supper before bed, poor souls," Elliot said.

Another woman said the rest home where her grandmother lived knew when an audit was going to take place.

"The owners are told when an audit is going to happen, so the heaters will get turned up and menus that have never been there before will be put on the board. She also said staff did not support those who were struggling to eat.

"Recently Nana was choking on a piece of meat but no one responded to the buzzer. The ambulance had to be called in the end."