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Imagine a large family sitting around the table eating a fulfilling meal. No matter what the cultural background is, people usually eat as a family because the members need to be fed. But families are not always available. For example, some 80 percent of the lower-income elders from diverse ethnic communities who take advantage of a dining service in a senior center in an urban community in Minnesota report that not only are nutritionally complete congregate meals helping them with their nutritional and health needs, but the psychosocial aspects of eating with others is a main factor in their choice to participate. After all, how good are tea and toast alone in front of a television?
"After my husband died, I couldn't go into the living room for four or five months because he wasn't there," one 75-year-old woman at the center said. "'But Lila,' my friend said, 'you've got to get out of the house.' She brought me here. I put my arm around the little old ladies that come here-and they're so happy to see me. We all need other people-we can't just be hermits and sit."
MORE THAN ONE CAUSE OF MALNUTRITION
Older adults can be at high nutritional risk as a result of health, socioeconomic, or psychosocial factors. Malnutrition in older adults may result from cither an insufficient or an excessive diet. Poverty, social isolation, psychological difficulties like depression, chronic illness, problems with the mouth or teeth, and physical limitations all increase the risk of malnutrition. These problems are compounded when older adults do not recognize the warning signs of malnutrition until their health has deteriorated, as often happens. Malnutrition is a crisis, but the signs can be subtle. And, the cumulative effects of malnutrition are often simply attributed to "old age."
When nutritional needs are not met, the person's physiological reserves slowly diminish. Added stress from, for example, illness, surgery, trauma, or a death in the family can lead to life-threatening physical problems.
LINK FROM SOCIAL SERVICES TO NUTRITION...