Compass Group UK & Ireland’s healthcare team has launched the Dignified Dining toolkit, a nutritional toolkit for people living with dementia, in over 60 hospitals and care homes. The toolkit outlines 10 key nutrition related guidelines, enabling residents and patients living with dementia to be given more personalised and specialist support in relation to their food provision, an essential part of their care.
In 2014, Compass Group sponsored research into dementia in conjunction with Alzheimer’s Disease International. The Dementia Nutritional Report highlighted the importance of nutrition to the clinical progression of dementia and how this affects the nutritional status of individuals.
Recent research into dementia has revealed: more than one in 12 people in the UK will be aged over 80 by 2039; it is estimated that there are 7.7million new cases of dementia each year worldwide, with one new case every four seconds; it is believed that approximately 135 million people will be living with dementia by 2050.
Being aware of the challenges of providing food services for people living with dementia, the Compass Healthcare team developed the Dignified Dining toolkit, focusing on three areas: food, service and environment. The toolkit has been successfully piloted at two care home sites, over a period of three months.
As part of the pilot scheme, catering and care were provided at both sites with joint training in dementia awareness being provided by Alzheimer’s Society UK. Some of the activities during the pilot included:
Food Passport - Compass Healthcare colleagues worked with friends and relatives of residents to build up a clear picture of each person’s daily eating preferences and routines in relation to meal times before they had dementia, resulting in the creation of an individualised nutritional care plan for each resident.’
Food Service Journey - the creation of a system that is used to process map the journey of a meal from the time the meal is prepared to the time it is served. This encourages the catering team to be flexible in serving food when the resident requires it
Dementia Mealtime Assessment Tool (DMAT) - a checklist carried out by the chef manager to identify common behavioural eating difficulties during mealtimes, information gathered was then used to generate suggestions on how eating difficulties can be overcome, so residents are able to eat independently for as long as possible.
Overall, the pilot scheme enabled the sites to gain a better understanding on the nutritional needs of each individual resident, it enhanced the resident’s mealtime experiences and the tools facilitated the provision of individualised nutritional care.
Steve Cenci, managing director of Healthcare at Compass Group UK & Ireland, says: “We are extremely proud to be launching the Dignified Dining toolkit at our client sites throughout our healthcare business. Managing the nutritional intake of individuals living with dementia is an essential part of their care. Our pilot schemes demonstrated the benefits of understanding more about the patient’s past, as well as their current condition, in order to provide them with a food offer they wanted and ultimately would eat. We are looking forward to rolling out the toolkit to enable our team to provide exceptional nutritional care for each individual patient and resident living with dementia.”
Maxine Cartz, dietitian at Compass Group UK & Ireland, says: “It is well documented that people living with dementia can struggle to meet their nutritional needs and they can experience significant problems with eating and drinking. This toolkit pulls together the latest research and best practice to facilitate the provision of individualised nutritional care for people living with dementia and provides tools for our colleagues to improve nutritional intake.”
Jeremy Hughes, chief executive at Alzheimer’s Society, says: “As dementia progresses, eating and drinking can become a real issue. Poor nutrition and dehydration can lead to weight loss, vulnerability to infection, increased confusion, and urinary tract infections ,which can worsen the symptoms of dementia.
“Initiatives like Dignified Dining, which work creatively to help people with dementia to enjoy food, eat a balanced diet and stay hydrated can play a role in helping people with dementia to remain healthy. Most residents in care homes have dementia, so it is important that all staff, from cooks to care workers to managers, have a good understanding of dementia and are aware of the best ways to support people with the condition so they can eat and drink well.”
In addition to the Dignified Dining toolkit, the Compass Healthcare team is also fundraising for research into dysphagia (difficulties in swallowing) and has already raised £50,000.
