Abstract
BACKGROUND: Meals on Wheels (MoWs) could help adults with care and support needs continue living independently. However, many people are not aware that the service still exists in England, or that it could provide benefits beyond nutrition.
OBJECTIVE: Working with an existing advisory group of six people with lived experience of MoWs (an adult who uses MoWs and people who have referred a family member to MoWs), this work aimed to co-produce knowledge translation resources (two infographics and a film) to raise awareness of MoWs and their benefits.
METHODS: Four participatory online workshops were held in May-July 2023, to establish perceived high-priority themes from recent qualitative research that should be included in the resources, and preferences about message content, language, design, and how the resources should be disseminated.
FINDINGS: The most important perceived MoWs benefits that the group agreed should be included in the resources were: the importance of a nutritious meal that requires no preparation; the service's reliability/consistency; the importance of interactions in reducing social isolation, and; the ease to commence the service. The group highlighted the need for language to be nontechnical and invitational, and for images to relate to respective messages, and be inclusive of anyone who could benefit from MoWs. Several routes for dissemination were proposed, highlighting the need to disseminate to the NHS, social care organisations and community groups.
CONCLUSION: These co-produced resources could enhance adult social care delivery in England, as raising awareness of MoWs and their benefits could increase referral rates, so that more adults with care and support needs can benefit from the service.
PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: An advisory group of people with lived experience of MoWs (users of the service and family referrers) participated in the workshops, extensively discussed the findings of earlier research, co-produced the knowledge translation resources, and advised on the implications and future dissemination steps. The group also provided informal feedback on a draft of this manuscript.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e14106 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Health Expectations |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 14 Jun 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 14 Jun 2024 |
Bibliographical note
© 2024 The Author(s). Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Data Availability Statement
All the materials used to co‐produce the knowledge translation resources are available in the Supporting Information of this article. Other information that supports this work is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The infographics are free to download and re‐use, after reviewing a licence agreement and answering a few questions (which will allow us to follow up with individuals and organisations which use them for documenting impact purposes), from this link: https://express-licences.bristol.ac.uk/product/meals-on-wheels-awareness-raising-aids.Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the group of people with lived experience of Meals on Wheels, for their participation in the co‐production, and the infographic developer and media company who created the resources co‐produced from this work. This report is independent research by the National Institute for Health Research School for Social Care Research. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR SSCR, the National Institute for Health and Care Research or the Department of Health and Social Care.Funding
no info
Keywords
- Humans
- England
- Translational Research, Biomedical
- Qualitative Research
- Meals
- Adult
- Female
- Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice