Senior Nutrition: How to Ensure that Your Residents are Getting What They Need!
A key part of life in any care home is the provision of exceptional healthcare, and nutrition is a vital part of that. The issue is ensuring that seniors eat enough, particularly in care home environments. It may be hard to ensure that your seniors are getting all of the nutrients that they need but it is a crucial part of the care that your care home provides and should always be made a priority.
Age Concern has reported that 60% of older adults in hospital environments are at risk of suffering from malnutrition. According to the World Health Organization, older people are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition, as attempts to provide them with adequate nutrition can come with many problems. There is also the issue that the nutritional requirements of seniors are not always well defined because as basal metabolic rate and lean body mass rates decline with age, the energy requirements of older people are much lower than younger adults.
Then there is the fact that as we age, our nutritional needs change in other ways. Such as the fact that while the need for some nutrients may reduce, the need for other essential nutrients may not, with the need for certain nutrients beginning to rise.
Read on to learn more about senior nutrition is so important and the steps that you can take to ensure that your residents are getting everything that they need...
What do the nutritional guidelines say?
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) sets out regulations for care home nutrition and hydration very clearly and expects all care homes to ensure that their residents get all of the nutrients that they require. As older people tend to be more susceptible to health problems, providing them with all of the nutrients that they need to stay healthy is a vital part of offering quality care, and the CQC is aware of this and marks care homes taking this into account.
The Public Health Agency states that a key part of nutrition for seniors is ensuring that their diet is varied and that they are eating regularly. Each day they should be eating three meals a day and two snacks, as well as drinking the recommended two litres of water a day. In terms of what they should be eating, the Eatwell plate can be a useful resource to use; this shows the food groups that constitute to a healthy diet and how much of each your residents should be eating. The Eatwell plate says that complex carbohydrates, protein and fruit and vegetables should make up part of each meal, along with a small amount of healthy fats that can be found in avocados, nuts, and seeds.
What about hydration?
Hydration is a key part of nutrition and is just as important as the food side of things, particularly for elderly people who suffer from a range of health problems. When it comes to the risk of dehydration, a lack of mobility, a reduction in appetite, medication, incontinence, and mental health issues can all impact whether a senior is at risk of dehydration.
For this reason, in care home environments, it is vital to take note of the fluid intake of your residents. That way you can ensure that each of your residents is getting plenty of water each day and is not going to end up dehydrated and unwell because of it. Dehydration can cause headaches, confusion, irritability, constipation, urinary tract infections, and renal stones, and in some cases, it can be fatal. However, by offering regular drinks and ensuring that the cups used are easy to drink out of can somewhat counter this.
How to make nutrition a priority
When it comes to ensuring that nutrition is taken seriously in your care home, there are many simple measures that you can put in place. A fantastic way to start is to ask each of your residents to fill in a form stating their dietary and drinking preferences. You see, if you serve food and drinks that your residents like, you are more likely to have healthy and well-hydrated residents.
If possible, each day serve a selection of meals and options, so that you residents can choose what they eat and drink. Instead of simply serving a sandwich at lunch and a hot meal at dinner time, think outside of the box. At each meal time get creative and offer a selection of options. For breakfast, offer a continental option as well as a cooked breakfast. For lunch, don’t just offer sandwiches, also offer soup, jacket potatoes, and a range of salads. At teatime, offer two main meals, as well as lighter bites like baked beans or eggs on toast.
Don’t serve all your meals at one set time, offer a more flexible approach to mealtimes. Not everyone likes to eat at the same time, some people prefer to eat earlier while others prefer to eat later.
How to help people with health problems
For any residents with health problems, such as dementia, for instance, it is important to consider their individual needs. When it comes to mealtimes, people living with dementia may require specialist eating and drinking equipment to help them to remain independent while they eat. They may also require foods that are softer and easier to eat, such as soup, for instance.
Should any of your residents require help eating and drinking, it is crucial that there is help on hand. It is important to train your team members to sensitvely assist anyone who struggles to eat or drink by themselves, helping to ensure that they get all of the vital nutrients that they need.
As a care home owner, it is your responsibility to ensure that your care home residents are getting all of the right nutrients that they need to lead healthy lives and remain well. The nutrition of the people living in your care facility should always be your number one priority and you should be willing to ensure that their comfort and enjoyment of eating, as well as helping them to maintain a healthy lifestyle, comes before anything else.
