COMMUNITY GRANT- Meals on Wheels Port Colborne
Getting discharged after a hospital stay is usually good news – you’re well enough to go home.
But it doesn’t mean everything is automatically back to normal, and, for many people, there’s a danger of ending up back in the hospital again because something went wrong.
A new program from Meals On Wheels Port Colborne is trying to reduce that risk. The Safe At Home program, which was launched in February 2022, delivers four weeks of nutritious and delicious gourmet meals to people in Port Colborne, Wainfleet, and Sherkston Shores, starting 24 hours after they’ve been discharged from hospital.
With the help of a $8,625 grant from the Niagara Community Foundation and referrals from the hospital discharge planners, “we are trying to break that cycle of going back to the hospital,” said Katrina Postma, Meals On Wheels Port Colborne’s executive director. Similar programs elsewhere in Ontario have demonstrated “substantial health care savings with a decrease in repeat hospital visits and people being able to stay at home instead of moving to a care facility,” Postma said. She hopes that by tracking results here in Niagara, more health care funding will eventually be made available to help even more people stay safe and healthy at home.
Fresh, nutritious food helps with healing, and it can also give caregivers a break, Postma said. The Meals On Wheels volunteers who make the Safe At Home deliveries also pay extra attention to how the clients are doing, she said, asking if there are any concerns or if extra help is needed. If the answer is “yes,” she can make referrals for those services.
“This program is giving them a safety net, to give them that extra support they need when they come out of the hospital,” she said. “I am very grateful to the Niagara Community Foundation because they are supporting the people of this community when they need it the most.”
Photo Credit: Aaron & Tara Photography
