This month, Nellsar’s Hengist Field Care Home and Woodstock Residential Care Home commenced training for the ‘Food First Project’ which will be carried out over the next three months by Medway Community Healthcare Dietetics Teams.
The Food First Project is a pilot formed by Local Authority Dieticians to reduce the amount of prescribed supplements and referrals to their teams. The project focuses on food-based nutrition, in place of prescribed supplements, to increase or maintain weight.
We are fortunate at Hengist Field, as our Care and Catering Teams have been very nutrition and food-focused for a number of years now, and can report very low to no unexplained resident weight losses within their Home.
Weight loss in the elderly
Weight loss is a common factor in older age but it isn’t inevitable if weight can be maintained through diet and food-based nutrition.
Sometimes there are mitigating factors which affect the appetite and can cause explained weight loss; these include illness, a feeling of isolation, the loss of a loved one, lack of mobility and independence, or those receiving end of life care. These are special areas which we are constantly working on within Nellsar to ensure that the life and appetites of those in our care are met with an holistic approach.
Project launch
The Food First Project will last for around three months; Care Teams will provide four high calorie snacks and drinks throughout the day in place of supplements for those who are prescribed them.
The Dietetic Teams running the project will gather the data, which will be collated over the coming months, and work with our Homes very closely throughout. Once we have run the project in Hengist Field and Woodstock, we will be able to take the same model to other Homes and share the finalised format.
As I have been coaching Nellsar in food-based nutrition for many years now, the food element is the easy part for us! Combining this with the structure from the Dietetics Teams on gathering information and team member allocation, we can really make the most of our skills from internal and external involvement.
Working with external professionals in this way is important to us as a company and we are always interested in collaborating with SLT and Dietician Teams to help us to provide the best nutrition for our residents now and in the future.
