Rohan's story

One day I surprised my dad by arriving at his place unannounced. I hadn't seen him for nearly a month. I found him standing in the yard dressed in tracksuit pants, woollen socks, a fleecy jumper and a beanie. The problem was that it was 32 degrees that day!

Then I went inside and the place was like a sauna. The heater was on. When I asked dad about it he kept saying that turning it on was just what you did when you got up in the morning. He repeated this over and over.

When I opened the fridge there was only yoghurt and fruit in there. I asked him about what he was eating and whether he was cooking for himself, and he said he ate whatever he felt like these days.

I thought that dad may not be getting the right nutrition and, as his enduring guardian, I should apply for Meals on Wheels to provide a service to him. We talked about the choices he had, and whether he thought he would like Meals on Wheels. But he did not like the idea of a person intruding on his privacy or the idea that he could not choose what he wanted to eat each day.

In the end, I decided not to apply for Meals on Wheels for him. Instead I decided to pop over more regularly for a meal, maybe bring something to cook together with him and try to help him understand the need for healthy eating.

But, I did decide to take the heater away for the summer because I wasn't confident that he understood that he didn't need to heat the place up. I thought it was too risky for his health to be wearing all those clothes in summer and have a heater on too.