“Nutrition Matters” News

Dignity of Choice in Diet: New Quality Standards – Will this affect your menu?

The new Aged care quality standards are to be implemented and assessed against from the 1st July, 2019, and Standard One is all about ensuring your consumers are able to exercise choice.  It’s a good time to question how you will manage choice especially in regard to meal choice. The agency focus will be to ask your residents questions and then depending on their responses, require your home to provide supporting evidence.
Choice – The consumer’s right to make informed choices, Read more »

National Quality Indicators: Now Compulsory

BMI

How do you match up on your management of unplanned weight loss?
The National Aged Care Quality Indicator (NQI) program, which until now has been voluntary for most aged care providers, is becoming compulsory program commencing 1 July 2019.   This issue of Nutrition Matters gives you a few pointers on managing this new requirement.
The required data on unplanned weight loss is the number of residents with
– Loss of 3 kg or more in a month
– Read more »

Creating a Culturally Specific Menu

When we think about culture, food is often one of the first things that comes to mind. The role food plays and the experiences residents have with food goes well beyond providing nourishment alone.
The cultural diversity within residential aged care facilities (RACF) is growing. With such diversity it can be difficult to provide a menu and an eating environment which replicates the foods and atmosphere each resident is accustomed to.
Peter Thiveos, Hospitality Manager at Fronditha Care has given us some great insight on how they do it in their homes across Victoria and NSW. Read more »

Getting IDDSI Ready – What do we need to do?

No doubt by now, you would have heard of IDDSI, the International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI). It’s an important change that is coming into effect from May 1st 2019 for Australians. It is a framework that aims to improve the safety of people with dysphagia by using standardised terminology for texture modified foods and thickened fluid, all over the world, for all ages and all care settings.
The current guidelines (Australian Standards for Texture Modified Foods and Fluids) for Dysphagia diets were developed in 2007. Read more »

Christmas Edition: Diabetes, Diet And Quality Of Life – A Little Sugar Is Okay

Food is important throughout the year, but it tends to be one of the main focuses at Christmas time. Everyone looks forward to the Christmas meals! This is the time to get excited about food and stimulate appetites. It’s another time to also think about whether the food restrictions we are placing on our residents, are appropriate or not.
As dietitians working in aged care, we find that many people are unaware of the appropriate foods for people with diabetes living in residential aged care facilities. Read more »

Demenetia and Mealtimes: Little Changes make a Big Difference

Nutrition Matters Newsletter November 2018
Each person experiences dementia differently and there is no one approach that works for everyone or even per occasion. Residents can experience a loss of connection with recognising food, with how to eat, declining swallowing abilities, taste changes, stress and unsettled behavior, impacting on their nutrition and quality of life.
We all recognise that there are constraints within homes, however there is always more that could be done to provide individualized and person-centred mealtimes for those with dementia. Read more »

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