An assessment and intervention to facilitate and promote independent mealtimes for a person with dementia

Abstract

Care environments for older adults can have high staff turnover. Individual, current care plans are not usually available for quick reference on-the-job. This means that staff who are not familiar with each person do not always have immediate access to information required to provide person-centred support. With regard to mealtimes in particular, this can result in unneeded assistance being provided (e.g. feeding someone rather than supporting them to use the utensils themselves). In an assessment ward for people with dementia, it was noticed that one person appeared to be losing independent feeding skills, possibly due to unneeded assistance. To assess the person’s current skills and support needs, an assessment was developed which determined the level of prompting the person required for each food type (e.g. finger food). Based on this, an easy, effective intervention was provided to guide staff as to the required assistance for that person. An increase in independence at mealtimes, and a decrease in unnecessary assistance from staff was observed.