A support service in the Cook Islands says it's identified a range of needs among elderly people including better accommodation.
The Creative Centre provides meals on wheels to clients in Rarotonga.
The centre's manager, Bob Kimiangatau says they've now given a bed to an 80 year-old pensioner that the Cook Islands News reported was sleeping in a wheelbarrow.
He says of the 14 clients they currently visit they've seen people sleeping on floors and with other accommodation issues.
"One of them is just a papa who's sleeping in a hut outside and corrugated roofing iron nailed together and he sleeps in that. Papas that are looking after each other, one's about 68, the other one's 74, and they fend for themselves basically."
Bob Kimiangatau says some clients have emotional needs, or need to be checked on by a doctor.
