Another strategy we heard about was to ensure that there were as few distractions as possible at mealtimes. Bryn Haven enlisted the support of families and visiting professionals to avoid coming at specific mealtimes, or to wait outside the dining areas until the meal was complete.

This enabled everyone to focus on enjoying food, as well as ensuring staff were available both to assist residents, and also to observe if anyone had difficulty concentrating on eating. Again this resulted in improved nutrition.

For many people suffering from dementia, it is difficult to ensure that they eat sufficient food to maintain health and energy levels. We read about some research which concluded that when people have food served on brightly coloured plates, particularly yellow, they ate more food and that their nutrition was improved.

As our cooks and care staff are continually trying to find ways of improving nutrition we decided to give it a try. Cawood and Bruce Lodge used yellow plats for some of their residents over a number of weeks. They found that it was successful. We have now added this to our strategies for improving nutrition of people with dementia.