finding an evening meals on wheels service

[falstaff1980]

Just looked into arranging this for my mother, so I can get an 'evening off' each week, but finding that even if you pay the council one, they only do lunch. Looking for private companies and they only seem to deliver frozen meals (may as well buy them myself and put them in my mother's freezer). This just leaves takeaways, but their drivers/riders won't raise an alert if my mother does not answer the door.

Any solutions people have found here?

Why can your DM not have a cooked meal at lunchtime? Then she can have something like sandwiches for tea.

Has she been assessment by adult social services? She 'might' qualify for a carer to come in the evenings to heat up a meal/prompt meds etc. Is she physically able to heat a meal in a microwave? You could leave a meal prepped on a plate to re-heat if that is the case.

As pp said you could pay for a carer to come in and heat something up , or better still advertise locally and you will likely find someone . If it’s only 1 night a week does she have any neighbours that would do it .

Maybe something more along the lines of a baby sitter? Someone to come in, microwave a meal and check she's still alive? That's not a full on carer role, but you might find a sitter who would do it

I forgot, there are also movement monitors. I 'think' they are like a smart watch or similar to a camera within the rooms, and can detect if someone hasn't moved in X mins/hours and sends an alert to you. Or if she would agree, install a camera in her home.

@falstaff1980 - Food Train offers a service where they link up elderly people with people living near them who will bring round a home made meal - if they operate in your area, might they be a solution? If I recall correctly, they may also stay and have a chat whilst the person eats their meal.

A neighbour of mine used to deliver meals for meals on wheels as a volunteer. She said the majority of their clients used to have the soup and dessert with lunch and reheat the main meal in the evening. They would often put in an extra bit of gravy etc so it would not dry out being reheated.

Thanks all, my mother can use a microwave but I often find things in it that she's heated up the day before and then forgot about. She still users the oven too to make cakes, which always seem to come out different and it's only a matter of time before she forgets completely and burns something. Hence I'm trying to wean her off trying to cook or even heat up for herself. Sounds like a carer might be the best way to go for evening meals.

Have you apples for Attendance Allowance yet @falstaff1980? That might help for someone to come in and heat up and evening meal and give her a drink and her medication in the evening.

Has she had a Care Needs Assessment yet too?