Support with nutrition for care homes
Community Clinical Dietitians
Hengrave House
Torbay Hospital
Torquay
TQ2 7AA
Tel: 01803 654396
Email: Community Clinical Dietitians
The Community Clinical Dietitians are here to support you with the nutritional care of your care home residents in Torbay and South Devon.
How to identify residents who are at risk of malnutrition
Calculating MUST scores (Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool)
Alternatives to MUST
If MUST scores no longer become feasible the Patient Association checklist may be simpler to use. These checklists are not specifically written for care homes. They are a useful assessment tool with prompts to help formulate individual care plans.
- Section A – this contains four key questions to assess someone’s potential risk,
- Section B – this provides guidance and information on what to do for anyone who was identified as needing support from Section A.
Next steps
If you are concerned about the nutritional intake of one of your residents, you have identified that they have lost weight or have a low Body Mass Index:
- First line information leaflets
- General advice sheet on malnutrition
- Leaflet on homemade fortified drinks, kindly shared by Cornwall NHS Dietitians
- Video on how to make fortified milk
- MUST management guidelines are available from the Community Dietitians, to support personalised care plans
Advice for patients at risk of malnutrition
Somerset NHS Dietitians have developed free webinars for malnutrition.
Managing malnutrition
Listen to Specialist NHS Dietitians, Lesley Harper and Leah Seamark, giving valuable advice on how to identify if you may be at risk of malnutrition and tips of making simple dietary changes to improve your nutrition and health.
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Screening and supporting for malnutrition in care homes
Listen to Specialist NHS Dietitians, Lesley Harper and Marianne Williams, giving valuable advice on screening and supporting for those at risk of malnutrition, development of person-centred care plans, support to catering teams, monitoring and End of Life Nutrition.
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Hydration
Health Innovation Oxford and Thames Valley have produced a Good Hydration! toolkit, training materials and resources.
Clinical Community Dietitians
Community Dietitians are able to assess, diagnose and treat malnutrition, advise on food fortification and hydration, liaise with carers and other agencies, and arrange oral nutritional supplements through GP if appropriate.
If in any doubt about a resident please call to discuss on 01803 654396 or email Community Clinical Dietitians.
Other resources
A range Food Fact Sheets is also available for a wide range of topics, written by Dietitians from the British Dietetic Association.