05 Aug, 2011
In the UK today, there are over 750,000 individuals diagnosed with dementia. The odds of developing dementia also increase as we age; one in five over 80s are affected by the condition, yet surprisingly the Alzheimer’s Society estimate that only 10% of care staff have recognised dementia training.
Unfortunately there is no one size-fits-all strategy for caring for individuals with dementia – the nature of the condition means that individual requirements can vary on a day-to-day basis. Below is an example of how individual needs can vary depending on the type of dementia:
Alzheimer’s disease
Vascular dementia
Fronto-temporal dementia
- Eating quickly, loss of social inhibitions
Lewy Bodies
- Avoid speckled plates, could be perceived as flies
- Residents may believe they are being poisoned
It’s best to stick to unpatterned plates with a defined edge as this will clearly show the edge of the plate and ideally you should avoid napkins that are the same colour as the table cloth.
To aid recognition, it’s also important to ensure that the dining room is kept as a dining room and not used for other activities which can confuse residents.
Serving familiar food will also encourage eating – research has shown that long-term memory is better than short so old favourites will tend to be good meal options.
However, senses of smell and taste become less acute with age, so stronger flavours like curry can also be popular.
Residents with dementia may struggle to make verbal choices or select items from a list, so picture menus are an excellent way of enabling independent choice. For maximum benefit, they need to be used just before mealtime as the choice may be forgotten within 20 minutes.
The meal the resident is served must correspond with the meal in the picture menu, so plate presentation is very important. Colour contrast should also be considered; either the background or the plate must show contrast to the meal. Finally, don’t display all of the options together as this offers too much choice and can be confusing.
Monitoring Hydration
Residents may also forget to drink as they may not recognise the sensation of thirst, so it is important to be aware of dehydration. To encourage fluid consumption, try using brightly coloured beakers.
Research has shown that there was an 80% increase in fluid consumption where red beakers were used. Bright blue also created similar results, so a bright colour seems to be key to encourage residents to drink.
- This article appeared in this month's Care Home News Bites which you can download here