Dining with dementia

Care home residents living with dementia should be involved in the preparation of meals, according to a leading expert.

David Moore, head of dementia at Hamberley Care Homes, is encouraging providers to actively involve residents living with dementia in food preparation and the dining experience to help preserve skills for longer.

He argues that while care homes should provide a restaurant-style experience, it should not be the dominant model of catering.

Instead, he advocates involving residents in preparing meals, setting the table, and recreating a homely dining experience in which they are as involved as possible.

He said: “I believe in the importance of involving residents living with dementia in making and serving their own food.

“At Hamberley Care Homes, our Homemaker model of care really helps to contribute to a more-authentic and cosy dining experience.

I’d love to see more care providers taking this into account and encouraging people living with dementia to participate in mealtimes as much as they can 

“Homemakers will support residents in tasks like peeling vegetables, chopping ingredients or simply laying the table.

“There’s a fine balance where the Homemaker can be there to assess and mitigate risks, but not take over, so the resident is empowered to do as much as they can.”

He reveals that assumptions and prejudices about a dementia diagnosis can lead to people losing skills earlier than necessary, adding: “It’s so easy for a care professional just to take over and do something themselves rather than be there to support and be with the resident as they do what they can. But that will lead to the person becoming passive and detached, not keeping up the skills they still have for as long as possible.

“Our Homemakers will always look at what a resident can do and enjoys doing, and they’ll often eat together as dining with a companion can act as a visual prompt for the person living with dementia to recall how to use cutlery and feed themselves.

“I’d love to see more care providers taking this into account and encouraging people living with dementia to participate in mealtimes as much as they can.”