Food for thought – local care home helps Sevenoaks community to remain healthy

A Sevenoaks care home is serving up advice to support older people in the community this month.

To mark National Nutrition Month, Care UK’s Weald Heights, on Bourchier Close, is sharing top tips from its free ‘Eating as We Age’ guide, which is packed with practical advice for keeping healthy and even includes nutritious recipes.

The guide covers every aspect of healthy eating, from why older people are more likely to see a decline in appetite, to how to create meals for people who may have lost the triggers that tell us we’re hungry. 

Including special recipes that residents at Weald Heights enjoy on a regular basis, from lime and coriander fishcakes, beef stew and dumplings to parsnip and ginger cake – the guide features nutritionally balanced meals with something for everyone to enjoy.

As well as food, the guide also offers information on why people’s appetites change and shares advice for those living with dementia. Where possible, eating should be sociable, fun and stimulating. Here are Weald Heights’ top tips for supporting older people to dine with dignity:

• The most important meal of the day – preserving independence is so important for someone living with dementia, and where better to start than at the breakfast table? Make sure all items are accessible, pour milk into small jugs and decant items such as butter, jam and marmalade into ramekins. This can help to encourage loved ones to serve food for themselves, if possible.
• Self-serve – Throughout the day, if they are able, give loved ones control over mealtimes by letting them choose from options of what they would like to eat later, supporting them to safely pour their own gravy and custard from a jug, or to help themselves to their own vegetables from serving dishes. 
• Time for tea – When making tea or coffee, assess whether someone is able to pour their own tea from the pot or cafetiere. For some, it might only be practical to add their own sugar, but anything that encourages independence is worthwhile.
• Make it social – Sit, eat and talk with loved ones as they dine. This will encourage them to stay seated for longer and to continue to eat or snack.
• Keep it simple – Don’t overwhelm someone living with dementia with too much choice. Ask closed questions. For example, ‘would you prefer toast or porridge?’, rather than ‘what would you like for breakfast?’.

Care UK’s Head of Hospitality and Culinary Lead, James Clear, who helped design the guide, said: “Each team member who works in our homes has a responsibility to ensure that the people who live there are well nourished. Every interaction helps, whether it's a maintenance worker sitting down with a resident for a mid-morning tea or a carer suggesting someone eats a piece of fruit as a snack. With all that in mind, we wanted to ensure our expertise could be shared to help those in the community caring for older loved ones, and I believe this guide achieves exactly that.”

Maria Covington, Home Manager at Weald Heights, added: “Nutrition is incredibly important for overall health and wellbeing, especially for older people, so we’re pleased to share our tips and advice for keeping nourished throughout National Nutrition Month and beyond. 

“It can be tricky for those caring for a loved one to ensure they eat plenty of nutritious meals and snacks, but our guide is packed with recipes and practical tips to help, including keeping as simple as possible, with fewer choices mealtimes, and having a chat over a cuppa or dinner to encourage loved ones to remain engaged and eat more.  

“We’d like to encourage local people to download their own copy of the guide and to reach out to us if they need any further support.”

In addition to enjoying nutritious meals and snacks, Care UK home teams and residents across the country have been enjoying ‘getting physical’ for the new year, trying out new, fun forms of exercise to kick off the new year.

To download your free copy of the guide, click here.

With warmer weather hopefully on the horizon, Care UK also has a handy guide to help everyone keep hydrated – you can download a copy here.

Weald Heights is a purpose-built care home designed to deliver luxury hotel-style comfort for residents, complete with a café, hair and beauty salon, cinema and beautiful gardens. The home is divided into separate residential, nursing and dementia care suites, encouraging close-knit communities where residents can get to know each other, and where people with similar needs can be cared for together.

For more information on Weald Heights, please call Customer Relations Manager, Amelia Moore, on 01732 809 189, or email amelia.moore2@careuk.com.

For more general information, please visit: careuk.com/weald-heights.