Dietitians in Aged Care Homes: Improving Nutrition and Wellbeing in later years

Dietitians in aged care facilities play an important role in supporting the health and well-being of residents. These specialised healthcare experts are committed to meeting the nutritional needs of older persons, which is critical for preserving general health, managing chronic illnesses, and enhancing quality of life.

Tailored Nutrition Care Plans

An Aged Care Dietitian examines each resident’s specific nutritional needs. They examine a variety of aspects, including medical history, current health status, and personal preferences. Dietitians create personalised meal plans based on extensive nutritional assessments, ensuring that each resident receives the proper balance of nutrients to support their health and without the need for expensive and artificial commercial supplements. 

Managing Chronic Conditions

Many older people in nursing homes have chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, or hypertension. Dietitians play a critical role in controlling these disorders by implementing individualised dietary interventions. They create meal plans that assist control blood sugar, lower blood pressure, and improve heart health, lowering the likelihood of problems and hospitalisations.

Improving the Quality of Life.

Balanced and enjoyable meals are critical for sustaining energy levels, cognitive function, and overall well-being in older adults. Aged Care Dietitians collaborate closely with kitchen staff to ensure that meals are both nutritional and appetising. Aged care dietitians enhance the residents’ dining experiences by providing a range of familiar and nutrient-dense foods, which can considerably improve their quality of life.

Addressing Dietary Challenges.

Aged care dietitians are skilled at addressing common nutritional issues faced by the elderly, such as reduced appetite, trouble swallowing (dysphagia), and malnutrition. We use strategies that have been demonstrated in research as well as our extensive experience to address these difficulties, such as changing food textures, providing nutrient-dense food swaps, and serving small, frequent meals. These measures ensure that residents receive appropriate nourishment, regardless of their circumstances.

Ongoing Monitoring and Support

Regular monitoring and reassessment are essential components of a dietitian’s role in aged care facilities. They constantly assess the success of nutrition plans and make necessary revisions to meet the changing demands of residents. This proactive strategy guarantees that residents’ nutritional condition is always optimal.

Education and Training.

Aged care dietitians also educate and teach staff, families and residents. They provide advice on best practices for food preparation, nutrient dense texture modified meals, and the relevance of nutrition in managing health concerns. This enables staff to provide better care and allows residents to make more educated nutritional choices.

In conclusion, aged care dietitians are critical to the health and well-being of older residents. They improve the quality of life for individuals in elderly care homes by providing personalised nutrition programmes, chronic illness management, and continuing assistance, ensuring that residents receive the best possible dietary care.

Meet our team of compassionate Aged Care Dietitians

Dr Cherie Hugo
Co-Director

Dr Cherie Hugo is an accredited practising dietitian and co-director of My Nutrition Clinic, with around 25 years of experience consulting with her team of My Nutrition Clinic dietitians to community, healthcare centres, hospitals and aged care organisations across Australia.

Cherie founded Lantern Alliance in 2013, a national aged care collaboration and action-based research and advisory initiative based at Bond University, focused on improving older Australian’s quality of life through the joy of good food. In 2018, Cherie completed her PhD which lead to the development of Lantern's evidence-based tools now actively used across industry (Epicure) to measure performance and guide success in the food (menu and mealtime quality), nutrition and dining experience.  This has been demonstrated this across over 100 aged care homes, in many, measuring the impact of My Nutrition Clinic's proactive dietetic services.

Cherie is currently the appointed advisor to the Australian Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s Food, Nutrition and Dining Experience guiding the transition to the new Aged Care Quality Standards. 

Linda Kilworth
Aged Care Dietitian

Linda Kilworth brings over 3 decades of experience to the My Nutrition Clinic aged care dietitian team. Linda has extensive experience across aged care, food service, menu design, education and management areas.

Lisa Greedy
Aged Care Dietitian

Lisa Greedy is an experienced aged care dietitian with specialist knowledge around dementia and dining and food science. Lisa provides dietetic services across a number of our aged care homes from the Whitsundays down to Brisbane region.

Linda Kilworth
Aged Care Dietitian

Linda Kilworth brings over 3 decades of experience to the My Nutrition Clinic aged care dietitian team. Linda has extensive experience across aged care, food service, menu design, education and management areas.

Petra Salo
Aged Care Dietitian

Petra Salo is a dietitian with a special interest in chronic disease prevention, weight management, mental health, older age nutrition and special diets such as vegetarian and vegan diets. Her goal is to bring life to the years and years to the lives of her clients. Petra provides dietetic services to a number of our South East Queensland and New South Wales sites.

Anne Clark, Aged care dietitian

Anne Clark
Aged Care Dietitian

Anne Clark is both an aged care dietitian and part of the Lantern Alliance Epicure team. Through these roles, Anne has an appreciation for the complexities of the aged care food and nutrition system and understanding of the needs of the older person. She is passionate about improving their quality of life through her knowledge of the aging process, chronic conditions and nutritional needs of the older person.

Aged Care Dietian

Alana Chaplin
Aged Care Dietitian

Alana Chaplin is an aged care dietitian with past experience in the hospitality and aged care carer areas. Alana brings her knowledge across the hospitality and care roles to deliver pragmatic dietetic advice to aged care homes in South East Queensland.

Some of the ways we can help:

  • Individual Consultations with Residents and Family
  • Implementation of our Evidence-Based Transition Off Supplement Program
  • Malnutrition and Weight Audits
  • Proactive Monthly Risk Monitoring & Response across Resident Population
  • Nutrition Impacts Audit against Site Quality Indicators & Star Ratings
  • Case Conferencing
  • Involvement in Consumer Advisory Boards and Food Focus Meetings
  • Training for Management, Nursing, Care, Lifestyle and Catering Staff
  • Unplanned Weight Policy Review/Development
  • Food and Nutrition Policy Review/Development
  • Review of Performance against the new Quality Standard 6
  • Menu and Mealtime Quality Assessments

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