“What’s for dinner today?”

Anglicare’s Aged Care team members understand the importance of nutrition and hydration. When they ask our clients a simple question – “What’s for dinner today?” – it opens the way for an important conversation about quality of life.

Anglicare’s Nutrition and Hydration policy recognises the importance of supporting our clients to access nutritious food and drink enough fluid, especially as they age.

Team members take courses in hydration, nutrition and safe food handling as part of their employment. Now, a training package offered by dietitians from the Tasmanian Department of Health is building on this foundation.

The Healthy Ageing training package introduces the 3A model: Ask, Advise and Assist.

“It gave us a toolkit of questions and statements that we can use to help us to better understand our clients,” says Anglicare’s State Operations Manager Sharon Scarlett.

Examples include:

Ask: “What’s for dinner?” and “How are you feeling about eating at the moment?”

Advise: “It sounds like you’re worried about how eating foods high in fat can impact on your health. There’s lots of conflicting information out there, it can be hard to know what to trust.”

Assist: “We have this great fact sheet with easy and healthy recipes. We could adjust your shopping list to make one of these meals, shall we have a look together?”

Preventing falls and malnutrition

Sharon Scarlett said three key factors help to prevent falls and enable older Tasmanians to remain at home for longer: good nutrition, hydration and physical activity.

“Older people need to eat foods that are rich in protein and calcium to maintain their strength and muscle tone. Good sources include fish, meat, eggs, nuts, cheese, yoghurt and baked beans.

“Dehydration can make a person feel weak and confused. It can also contribute to urinary tract infections. The liquid from soups and tea and coffee counts towards the goal of eight glasses of water a day – this is good news for people who struggle to drink this much.

“And lastly, physical activity is important to maintaining bone density and a healthy heart, and it also protects mental health,” she said.

Community dietitian Claire says that brief interventions by aged care staff can help to prevent people from needing further support or even hospitalisation.

“Small nudges that remind people to eat regular meals and snacks and continue to hydrate during the day can prevent patterns from forming that result in them becoming malnourished,” she said.

Sharon Scarlett said Anglicare encourages its clients to raise any concerns they have with their care manager.

“They might need extra help with grocery shopping or preparing meals or finding exercises that they can do at home,” she said. “Sometimes older people experience poor appetite or difficulties with chewing or swallowing. Our clinical nursing team can develop a tailored meal plan for our home care package clients. We also arrange referrals to dentists, speech pathologists and organisations like Diabetes Tasmania.”

A warming chicken broth

The recipe below appears in the iconic Central Cookery Book. This soup is high in protein and a great way to boost your fluid intake. Serving up to six people, it’s good to share with visitors or freeze for later.

Ingredients:

1 chicken carcass and trimmings

1 litre of stock or water

1 teaspoon of salt

A pinch of pepper

1 onion

1 carrot

1 stick celery

Bouquet garni (a handful of herbs tied together with string)

¼ cup of washed (uncooked) rice

Chopped parsley

Method:

Put the chicken, stock or water, salt and pepper on to simmer in a boiler or stovetop saucepan.

Wash, peel and dice the vegetables into small cubes. Add to the boiler/saucepan with the rice and herbs.

Simmer for one hour.

Remove the bones and skin.

Check the seasoning and garnish with parsley before serving with some crusty bread.

Further information

The Tasmanian Department of Health provides a suite of resources under the Healthy Ageing banner. Topics include eating well, being physically active, staying safe during extreme heat events and the importance of getting enough Vitamin D.

It offers free online training packages for aged care sector workers and volunteers. There is also training that focuses on how to identify malnutrition, and reduce its risk.

Anglicare Tasmania’s Aged Care service.