Are residents getting the guidance they need to make healthy choices?
What kind of special diet does your resident require? Do you struggle with the precarious balance of being able to confidently meet the special needs of that potential new resident versus being able to rent that suite? Are your residents moving in with demands and needs such as an MSG-free, diverticulitis, lacto-vegetarian or vegan diet? What about combining any of the above with a reduced sodium or diabetic diet? Who is making sure that menus are health and diet appropriate?
Resident-centred dining gives seniors more food choices than ever before. Many residences, however, lack a staff nutrition manager or even a nutrition consultant. Does this mean that seniors are on their own to make their own choices and must continually make special requests in order to have their dietary needs met?
Your residents may come to you relatively healthy and independent, and being able to attend to their dietary requirements will help them stay that way. Encouraging them to make the proper choices on the menu you offer may not be enough. How will you ensure that your residence can meet the demands?
Food service standards
There is no consistent standard across the country for food services for seniors in retirement living. Food safety may also be lacking. Other than the local health inspector, who is working to ensure that the potential risks are minimized? In October 2010, the Toronto Star conducted an undercover investigation of a retirement residence in Toronto. The reporter found the food to be dangerously prepared, and “the food was sub-standard, with only traces of protein.” Obviously this facility is an anomaly, but how can operators ensure the nutritional needs of all of their residents are being met? What intervention practices do you have in place?
Executive chef training
Although many residences have an executive chef on staff, are they being asked to take on the role of a dietitian or nutrition manager as well? How can you ensure that the nutritional composition of a vegetarian diet or ethnic-specific diets will be nutritionally adequate? Typically, a chef will receive basic nutritional instruction in their one-year program. Nutrition managers are graduates of a two-or three-year program, and receive many hours of instruction and practical experience in nutrition throughout the life cycle, as well as menu development and therapeutic nutrition. A dietitian is a health professional who has a bachelor’s degree specializing in foods and nutrition.
Adapting menus for therapeutic needs
Where many communities fall short is in adapting a menu to the therapeutic needs of a resident. For example, having the ability to interpret the differences between a low-sodium diet and a salt-free diet or being able to provide enough protein to a resident on a vegan vegetarian diet. Often the protein item is simply taken off the plate. This is wholly inadequate and will compromise the health of your resident and could lead to malnutrition.
If your residence is part of a large chain, you may already have the ability to access your corporate registered dietitian or nutrition management consultant. If you are an independent operator, you might want to look at hiring a registered dietitian or a nutrition manager, either as part of your management team or on a consultative basis.
Nutrition managers
Nutrition managers work consultatively with chefs and dietitians. Their core role is to incorporate their knowledge and skills in co-ordinating and managing the operations of the dining services department. Often they have two years of hospitality or culinary management training at a college level, plus another year of human nutrition. The Canadian Society of Nutrition Management is very close to launching a Certified Nutrition Manager program. This will ensure that hiring a person with this level of knowledge will bring a high standard of menu-planning, purchasing and food-safety skills to your facility. The nutrition manager has been trained to develop menus according to Canada’s Food Guide recommendations and can plan a menu with modifications to meet the special dietary needs of your residents.
Mary Ellen Renwick, general manager of Richmond Woods Retirement Village in London, Ontario, has both an executive chef and a nutrition manager as part of her management team. Renwick says her residents’ dietary needs range from gluten intolerances to severe allergy restrictions. Her executive chef, Jeff Piche, and nutrition manager, Laura Jackson, work closely together to ensure that meals address issues of nutrition, choice and variety. This in turn gives Renwick the confidence to tell potential clients and their families that residents’ nutritional needs will be met.
Richmond Woods Retirement Village also uses an online menu management software program that gives the chef and food services supervisor the opportunity to access, scale and print thousands of customizable recipes.
Purchasing groups
Purchasing groups also help by providing a hospitality-based menu planned by a team of dietitians and nutrition managers with seniors’ needs in mind, as well as ensuring that adequate calories and all food groups are met, according to Canada’s Food Guide recommendations. A menu provided by a purchasing group could also include production sheets, standardized recipes and shopping lists.
While it may cost about $100 to have a registered dietitian or nutrition manager review your menu, it is the bare minimum, in terms of ensuring the basic nutritional needs are at least being offered. Hiring a nutrition manager or registered dietitian on at least a consultative basis will enable you to market your residence in a manner that ensures resident needs are being met—including a full-choice menu. Standardized purchasing of products and the way they are prepared and served all contribute to resident satisfaction.
The Canadian Society of Nutrition Management continues to accredit colleges. It also monitors its members to achieve core competencies that ensure your seniors are pleased with your food service operations, and that they are receiving the therapeutic diet prescriptions they require.
For further information on where to find a nutrition manager, or a registered dietitian please visit www.csnm.ca or www.dietitians.ca
About Pat Sylvain
