Dignified Dining, the toolkit

What is Dignified Dining? /

The Compass team have now developed Dignified Dining - a toolkit to enhance person centred care, focusing on the three main areas highlighted in the report: food, service and environment. The toolkit begins by outlining 10 nutritional care guidelines for people with dementia, and goes on to provide practical guidance for our healthcare colleagues to help us ensure we deliver the best possible food experience to people with dementia.

The toolkit /

The toolkit gathers together practical advice and guidance in one easily accessible place. Each section examines common food related issues and provides practical ideas to help colleagues deliver the best possible nutritional care for people with dementia. This encompasses advice on food, service and the eating environment.

Specialist Training /

In partnership with The Alzheimer’s Society, we have commissioned the design of a bespoke Compass course module for our frontline teams, designed to help them provide the best possible care for people with dementia. Our training is centred on 4 main areas: general awareness and understanding, nutrition and dietary needs, behavioural eating difficulties and safeguarding. More information on this can be found in Section 4 of the Toolkit.

The toolkit sections are /

Food

The food section of the toolkit focuses on seven areas:

• Diet and nutrition
• Nutritional targets for people with dementia
• Sample menus
• Finger food
• Food fortification
• Texture of food and liquids modification
• Menu development principals

In this section, our teams can access menu ideas, energy (calorie) requirements, a list of appropriate tableware, templates to record the food service journey, food intake record charts and a food based behavioural assessment tool to support the people in their care.

"I found the toolkit very interesting, especially the affect of dementia on different parts of the brain i.e. how recent memories diminish first while childhood memories much later. This helped me understand individual eating patterns and why certain residents develop a sweeter tooth during their stay at Eachstep and this helped me to personalise their diet using the food passport."
Melanie, Cook at Eachstep Residential Home

Environment

The environment section of the toolkit focuses on three areas:

• Mealtime equipment
• Signage
• Dining Areas

Her our teams can access advice on creating an appropriate mealtime ambience in order to encourage a positive meal experience for people with dementia.

This section contains advice on tableware - considering colour, texture and safety to ensure dignity and comfort when eating. It also offers advice on creating clear and recognisable signage - to help individuals with dementia build their confidence and maintain their independence without fear of getting lost. There is also guidance on how to create a pleasant, calming eating environment. By changing lighting, colour contrast and seating arrangements, for example, colleagues can make a real difference to residents’ dining experience.

"I found that having the open plan dining areas encouraged the individuals to become more social and engage in conversations with other residents during their dining experience. We have noticed that through this approach a resident tends to eat more and is encouraged to eat independently when watching other residents dining."
Elizabeth, Deputy Manager at Eachstep Residential Home

Service

The service section of the toolkit focuses on five areas:

• Communication to enhance the experience of the resident
• Protected mealtimes
• Service times
• Presentation and service
• A service journey

In this section, our teams can find advice on how to seat diners to ensure a safe and comfortable eating experience; appropriate equipment such as adapted cutlery, single items of cutlery, coloured crockery, plate guards and non slip mats; and how to record the ‘service journey’ so that the meal service can be analysed and improved.

”I’ve spent most of my career catering for Senior Living residents and the training course gave me a real overview of the different types of dementia under the Dementia umbrella and how each type has varying behaviour patterns. This helped me understand why a certain resident maybe quite aggressive as he was suffering from vascular dementia while another would become more and more withdrawn as Alzheimer’s set in. The communication piece of the training was also very beneficial and I have adopted these tips while I talk with the residents and have found thatI get much more back from them."
Melanie, Carer at Eachstep Residential Home