Nutrition (relating to dementia)

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Chapter 6: Nutrition

Overview:

• Discusses how food can be used as a means to communicate with people with dementia and how food refusal can be an important form of communication
• Guides on how to stimulate the senses to promote necessary activities such as eating in dementia sufferers
• Discusses common problems experienced by dementia sufferers including noise, stress and visual impairments and how these effect food intake

Description:

Food is essential to life and is one of life’s great pleasures, but eating and nutrition can be problematic and a source of stress to people with dementia and those who care for them. This chapter considers the factors that play a part in this problem and suggests some practical approaches for alleviating difficulties.

Topics:

• Communication
• Lack of cues
  • Aroma
  • Visual cues
  • Touch
  • Taste
  • Hearing
• Noise
• Stress
• Drugs
• Visual impairments
• Sore mouth
• Brain damage
• Profound disability
• Staffing issues
  • Lack of ownership
  • Education of other staff

Speaker / Author:

Professor Mary Marshall
Mary is the director of the Dementia Services Development Centre at the University of Stirling (Scotland). The centre, which began in 1989, extends and improves services for people with dementia by providing information, consultancy, training, research, conferences and publications for staff and volunteers in all aspects of dementia care.

Mary has worked with older people as a social worker, researcher, teacher and manager for more than thirty years. She is the author of several books on working with older people and people with dementia. In the field of dementia care, Mary’s special interests are design, technology and food.

Professional Reviews: