Imperial College Healthcare Charity has funded a project to help with nutritional needs of dementia in-patients at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.Lead Nurse for Dementia for the Trust, Jo James, writes: A recent point prevalence audit told us that 26% of all of our patients across Medicine and Surgery have dementia. We are working hard to ensure that they receive care which is tailored to their specific needs while they are with us in hospital. One issue for people with dementia is difficulties with eating and drinking which often become worse during a hospital admission.
Recent research by Alzheimer’s Disease international stated that up to 70% of patients in hospital with dementia will have malnutrition and dehydration. This is not because of neglect, it is because it can be very difficult to persuade a person with dementia who is unwell to eat and drink; also because there are lots of challenges in hospital which can make it difficult for a person with dementia to manage food and drink.
Over the last year, we have been working with our caterers Sodexo, our dieticians and the Imperial Charity to find a solution to this issue.
We have undertaken numerous small scale trials of different things
- social eating
- music while eating
- activities before and after eating
- coloured crockery
- snack boxes (Bento Boxes).
The Imperial Charity has supported the development and implementation of the pathway over the next 15 months and we believe that this will give us the opportunity to prove what a difference this will make to our patients."