Meal time companion Eileen Engleman  at Newton Abbot Community Hospital - video Dailymotion

Watch Eileen Engleman helping patients at mealtimes at Newton Abbot Hospital

Transcript

00:00I'm Eileen and I'm a Mealtime Companion, this is a volunteer role and I do this once

00:19a week at Newton Abbott Hospital.

00:32A Mealtime Companion is a person who comes in at mealtimes, whether it's breakfast, lunch

00:38or supper and they come in and they are advised of a patient who may need to have support

00:46and that support can either be socially or it can be actually practical help with the

00:55motions of eating.

00:57Sometimes it's just actually telling people what is on their plate, prompting and sometimes

01:04it's actually putting the food onto the fork and guiding it.

01:09Of course if a patient can do it themselves that's what we're always going to aim to do.

01:16It's nice, because I've been away from my wife for a long time now, it's nice to have

01:21that companionship and she's very easy to talk to as well, it's nice to interact with

01:29nice people at the end of the day.

01:33I think I'd enjoy my meal more, just chatting away and just passing the time of day, shooting

01:40the stuff and that.

01:44For me I get a lot of satisfaction from it in that I do feel that it makes quite a big

01:52difference to people's day and if it prompts memories, because we do talk about lots of

02:00things and then usually it ends up with having a good laugh and genuinely it does and I think

02:10that's good.

02:11So I leave feeling a sense of satisfaction of having done something that is meaningful.