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Malnutrition in Nursing Homes Reprinted December 1997 On October 22, 1997, the Senate Special Committee on Aging held a forum on the risks of malnutrition in nursing facilities. There were expert witnesses, facility witnesses and family members describing their family’s experiences. The study followed 100 residents with eating problems. Four factors were identified: 1) inattention to food preferences; 2) unrecognized swallowing disorders; 3) poor oral health; and 4) inadequate staff. Staffing problems are critical. When a facility does not have sufficient staff, the residents are feed quickly and forcefully. For example, feeding residents a glass of milk with pureed food. Additionally, there are social, cultural, environ-mental factors that influence eating behavior in nursing home. Sometimes residents lose weight because they have few or no teeth and/or have swallowing disorders. Facilities might then put the resident on pureed food which is often unappetizing. This adds to continued weight loss of the resident. Then the resident is given commercial supplements. f you have someone in a nursing home, you most likely have experienced some of these situations. When you see the number of residents aides frequently supervise, you see why we frequently hear of a spouse going to the nursing home to assist with meals. We’ve heard many stories related to this problem of proper nutrition, teeth get broken or lost or the food is tasteless. Be vigilant, residents can’t always speak up, having family and friends visit usually make a big difference. Testimony of the hearing is to be published in a committee report. Interested in more info, contact Toby Edelman at the National Senior Citizens Law Center in Washington, DC at 202-289-6976. (Washington Weekly, October 24, 1997)
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Copyright © 2002 Law Firm of Raymond L. Parri, P.A., All rights reserved.
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