Your long term care questions.

[btthegreat]

I am a Certified Dietary Manager who has worked in nursing homes, memory care and assisted living facilities for decades. I have some limited understanding of how these facilities work, how they are structured to meet medicaid and medicare regulations etc, and much a deeper understanding of how these kitchens and dining programs work. I know the diets/ texture modifications, assessments, nutrition screens are written etc, why the menus written are the way they are etc.

If you have questions about any of this, I am willing to answer based on my experience and training.

I also know what I do NOT KNOW, so lets not get into why your Mom was prescribed drug X or why the physical therapist decreased the number of scheduled minutes or visits for your uncle.

 

[SarahSun]

My mom worked in a nursing home and said people were treated awful. Is that a general thing?

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

I am a Certified Dietary Manager who has worked in nursing homes, memory care and assisted living facilities for decades. I have some limited understanding of how these facilities work, how they are structured to meet medicaid and medicare regulations etc, and much a deeper understanding of how these kitchens and dining programs work. I know the diets/ texture modifications, assessments, nutrition screens are written etc, why the menus written are the way they are etc.

If you have questions about any of this, I am willing to answer based on my experience and training.

I also know what I do NOT KNOW, so lets not get into why your Mom was prescribed drug X or why the physical therapist decreased the number of scheduled minutes or visits for your uncle.

Whoa, wait a sec.
On another forum I used to belong to I became friends with ANOTHER dietary manager type person who lives right by you.
Either that or we may know each other but that can't be the case because I did use this same handle on that forum and you would have picked up on that immediately.

 

[btthegreat]

My mom worked in a nursing home and said people were treated awful. Is that a general thing?

I notice you use the past tense so I don't know the time frame, the geographic area etc. It depends on a lot of variables, from staffing to management, to morale, to 'expectation's etc. A lot depends on turnover rates too. Its too broad a brush.

 

[btthegreat]

Whoa, wait a sec.
On another forum I used to belong to I became friends with ANOTHER dietary manager type person who lives right by you.
Either that or we may know each other but that can't be the case because I did use this same handle on that forum and you would have picked up on that immediately.

Its very possible its me. When you say 'right by you', I'd have to know which city. I have posted on these forums, from several towns in the Willamette Valley. I might have 'picked up on it' when you started here, but never thought to mention it to you. I don't recall either way. Its also true I have been using 'btthegreat' in the last few forums I have joined.

I would have remembered moving to or from Los Angeles though, so I doubt we have physically met.

 

[btthegreat]

bumping a thread that is years old. It did not go far then, maybe it will now

 

[The Mark]

I am a Certified Dietary Manager who has worked in nursing homes, memory care and assisted living facilities for decades. I have some limited understanding of how these facilities work, how they are structured to meet medicaid and medicare regulations etc, and much a deeper understanding of how these kitchens and dining programs work. I know the diets/ texture modifications, assessments, nutrition screens are written etc, why the menus written are the way they are etc.

If you have questions about any of this, I am willing to answer based on my experience and training.

I also know what I do NOT KNOW, so lets not get into why your Mom was prescribed drug X or why the physical therapist decreased the number of scheduled minutes or visits for your uncle.

Is there a significant difference between the diet that would be provided to someone in their 40s, compared to someone 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, or 100?
Or maybe specific medical situations vary it more...

 

[btthegreat]

Is there a significant difference between the diet that would be provided to someone in their 40s, compared to someone 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, or 100?
Or maybe specific medical situations vary it more...

 

[btthegreat]

Absolutely I could write an essay on this. Your entire lifestyle changes as you age, especially if you retire, gain or lose new hobbies, if you move from the family home or become widowed, if you get new health or dental concerns and all those changes will impact your nutrition plan. Generally, your metabolism is likely to slow down, your caloric needs will decrease, your hypothalamus will be less boisterous about telling you to hydrate, your sense of smell, and taste will alter, your medication and exercise regimen will alter, your digestion and bowl and urinary systems will change. And you will need to respond accordingly

 

[btthegreat]

Actually the danger once you move into a nursing home, is that your nutrition plan can get too bogged down in the clinical aspects of your miriad diagnosis and the interdisciplinary team working on your diet, can lose sight of the forest for the trees! The two of the most common complaints we will recieve in long term or skilled care, is that the food is too bland, predictable, institutional, and there is too little choice. The biggest enemy of a good meal and choices, can be that restricted diet! Sure it may be 'heart healthy', easy to cut and chew, but it may not provide any pleasure once the salt, fat, and sugar are controlled and provide only marginal health benefit in the last decade of your life. Matter of fact, it may in many cases, do you a lot more harm than good!

When I used to work more closely with the creation of these nutrition plans, in concert with dieticians, they used to routinely recomend that doctors ditch the more restrictive low salt/ low fat or renal diets for something more permissive, just to get residents a really decent meal to eat! If you are 75 years old, and the smell and taste of bacon is what breakfast is all about for you, then lets give you that bacon so that you will not refuse the meal, its calories and nutrients. Further, let's give you a reason to wake up, get dressed and come down to the dining room and maybe socialize and eat. The benefits of the bacon, scrambled eggs with cheese will far outweight the detriments, because getting you choosing what to eat, and then eating it , is getting you active and participating in your own care and life. Its getting your mind off your pain, and pushing depression a little further away for a half an hour. Even if you are griping about Mrs. Jones and her annoying conversation and the sauce on your pork chop, at least you are getting stimulation!