Leading care provider in the North of England and Midlands, Orchard Care Homes, is introducing pictorial menus in its care homes.
Orchard believes its new visual menus will benefit residents with dementia by enabling them to recognise food even if they struggle with the words.
The advantages of pictorial menus are clear. The combination of image and text helps those with cognitive impairment or loss make informed choices on their eating habits. Evidence suggests that providing residents with both a description and an image stimulates the visual and language areas of the brain together, increasing accurate memory recall and the ability to recognise favourite foods. Ultimately, residents can make a choice that is more likely to be their own and one they are happy with.
Previously, residents were asked to make their meal choices one day in advance, but now the pictorial menus are displayed on the day, keeping residents’ choices at the forefront of their minds.
The idea of switching to pictorial menus came from catering lead Jason Hunter, who said: “The visual images really help residents to understand what’s on the menu and make their choices. Meal times are important, not only from a nutritional aspect but they also provide opportunities for social interaction and build a sense of community. The menus are adapted for individual homes, can be adapted to suit people with special dietary requirements and will be introduced into all our homes in the coming weeks.
Our ultimate goal is to provide the best possible mealtime experience for every individual resident. They are an integral part of day-to-day life and a catalyst for the health and wellbeing of our residents.”
