Are your residents getting the best nutrition?  Are they losing weight or putting too much on for no apparent reason?  W&L’s mobile dietitians can help you, onsite!

The use of dietitians in aged care facilities has steadily increased in Australia as managers are recognising the wide-ranging benefits that an experienced nutrition consultant can have.

“Excellent services available that are flexible, who have a sound knowledge and understanding of the aged care sector.” St. Anna’s Residential Care Facility

The costs associated with poor nutritional management of residents are staggering.  Unintentional weight loss and malnutrition have been proven to delay wound healing, increase risk of fractures, reduce immune response, increase confusion amongst dementia residents, increase constipation problems and increase the risk of pressure sore development.  All of which affect medication and treatment costs, nursing time requirements and overall quality of life for residents.

Accreditation standards 4.8 and 2.1 require facilities to provide adequate nutrition and hydration in a way that enhances residents’ quality of life.

With research showing that up to 45% of Australian aged care residents are becoming malnourished, it is vital that your facility has an action plan in place to optimise nutrition, in a practical and cost effective manner.

This is where W&L’s mobile dietitians can help you.  They can assist with:

• Accreditation support:
  • Comprehensive menu assessment and report.
  • Guidelines and practical suggestions to comply with nutrition standards.
  • Menu planning sessions with chefs and catering management.
  • Resident meal satisfaction audits.
  • Food wastage audits.
  • Assistance with developing standard recipes and serving sizes.
• Quality improvement programs:
  • Implementation of nutritional screening tools.
  • Assistance with nutrition policy and procedure development/review, i.e. flowcharts for initiation of nutritional support, hydration guidelines, diabetes and hypoglycaemia management.
  • 6-monthly weight audits and performance indicators.
  • Cost effective food fortification guidelines.
• Individual assessments:
  • Comprehensive resident assessments.
  • Assessment documentation designed to provide further supportive evidence for validation in other ACFI domains, i.e. behaviour.
  • Handover summary for nursing and catering staff
• Staff development.  Education sessions for catering, nursing and care staff on all aspects of nutritional management including:
  • feeding residents with advanced dementia
  • meeting hydration requirements
  • PEG feeding management
  • nutrition and wound healing
  • preventing constipation
  • malnutrition and high energy/protein diets
  • special diets, i.e. gluten free, texture modified, diabetes, etc.
• Group education sessions.  Designed and tailored to resident requirements on topics including:
• weight management
• diabetes management (note Medicare rebates may apply)
• option of physiotherapy/exercise physiology involvement for development of exercise program

Wellness & Lifestyles Australia understands that nutrition and dietary intervention play a significant role in improving clients’ health and outcomes. For a limited time we are offering three new packages at discounted rates:

Gold Package – includes site menu assessment; education session – Forming Your Nutritional Support Team; initial screening session of identified high-risk residents; monthly resident reviews (4 hours/session) and education session….choose from a number of available topics!

Silver Package – includes site menu assessment; education session – Forming Your Nutritional Support Team; initial screening session of identified high-risk residents and six-weekly resident reviews (4 hours/session).

Bronze Package – includes site menu assessment and education session – Forming Your Nutritional Support Team.

If you are interested in any of the above packages, please call head office on 8331 3000 for further details.

Get one of our mobile dietitians to visit you to help you get your residents as healthy as can be!  Call now on 8331 3000 and ask head office staff to organise a visit!

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