Emergency Appeal reaches the elderly in Cornwall’s far west

Penzance and West Penwith Old People’s Welfare Trust are locally known as the Pengarth Day Centre (PDC). Under normal operation, the centre provides a warm, caring day facility for the areas senior community, where they can come to sit, chat and enjoy regular company, activities and special events. The centre also provides refreshments, including lunch and a home delivery service for those who are unable to visit the centre themselves.

Since lockdown, PDC has received funding from the Appeal Fund to enable them to expand their home delivery meals, as they have seen a massive surge in the number of requests for this service from their clients. Sharon Mitchell, from PDC, commented, “We have seen a huge increase - well over 100% - in the demand for the number of Meals on Wheels that we are being asked to provide. This has entailed a lot of extra expenditure on fuel and food for ingredients for the meals.”

It doesn’t stop there either, as the centre’s staff are going above and beyond to make sure all their clients are well cared for. Sharon reports, “We are continuing to provide outreach services such as making welfare phone calls and physical checks, doing individual's shopping, collecting and delivering prescriptions”.

This has meant adapting the care Sharon and her team provide, with all clients receiving a phone call each day so the PDC can coordinate the right care and support as required.  “For a lot of our clients we are their main and only point of contact, so it is our intention to keep on providing these services for as long as it takes.”