The Community Dietetic team cover all care homes across Forth Valley.

We are a small team of Dietitians and Dietetic Assistants who provide person- centred nutritional care to care home residents who are malnourished or at high risk of malnutrition.

Reduced appetite, unintentional weight loss and swallowing difficulties can be common problems for some people living in a care home.

Our team works together with care home staff and resident’s families, providing education and supporting them to provide appropriate nutritional care.

Leaflets and Resources for residents and families

• Do you have a small appetite? – Practical ideas to help support people who have a small appetite.
• Nutrition and Safer Mobility – Advice on nutrition, hydration and bone health to help support safer mobility.
• Healthy eating and drinking for a person with dementia – Dementia UK
• Eating, drinking and ageing well – British Dietetic Association (BDA) – Guidance on balanced eating for people aged 65 and over, download a free infographic poster and Easy Read guide.
• Eating and Drinking with Dementia – Advice to support eating and drinking for people living with dementia.
• Eating and drinking towards the end of life – Practical guidance to help staff, families and carers provide mouth care and support comfort, choice and enjoyment when a person is eating and drinking towards the end of life.
• How to improve your nutrition – NHS Inform
• Malnutrition – NHS Inform
• Malnutrition and Nutritional Support – NHS Forth Valley
• What is Dysphagia? (Swallowing Problems) – NHS Forth Valley
• Your guide to making the most of your food – Advice for patients and carers – This leaflet provides some simple ideas on how you can get the most nutrition from the food you are eating.

Staff Resources and Training

• BAPEN – (British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition) – Have developed a range of resources, tools and online modules around screening for malnutrition – for health and social care personnel working in various care settings.
  • E- Learning Portal – Designed for health and social care staff working in care homes, hospitals and primary care.
  • Self-screening for malnutrition in the community – Information for Healthcare Professionals.
  • MUST ‘Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool’ Calculator – Can be used to establish nutritional risk.
  • MUST ‘Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool’ Toolkit and Resources – Staff resources available to print off in a variety of different languages – includes the full MUST Toolkit, flowchart and BMI and weight loss charts.
• Nutritional Screening using MUST – TURAS – Learn more about malnutrition and nutritional screening. This online Module is designed to be flexible, so that you can use it at a time, place and pace that suits you – it takes around 45 minutes to complete.
• Nutritional Training for Residential Care Settings Webinar – NHS Forth Valley Community Dietitians worked in partnership with Speech and Language Therapists to produce this webinar.
• Nutrition in Care Homes – Right Decision Service – These links provide posters, videos and resources about MUST (Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool), food first, fortified milkshakes, hydration, weight management and the meal-time experience. These resources were shared with kind permission of the Care Home Dietetic Team, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
• Eating and drinking well in care: Good practice guidance for older people – Care Inspectorate Guidance.

Swallowing Difficulties (Dysphagia)

You can also consult the Care Home ‘Swallowing Matters’ Guide provided by NHS Forth Valley Speech and Language Therapists.

• What is Dysphagia? (Swallowing Problems) – NHS Forth Valley
• Management of Dysphagia – TURAS – This online module is for all trained and untrained nursing staff, Allied Health Professionals and other staff involved in the process of supporting and monitoring nutrition and hydration. This online Module is designed to be flexible, so that you can use it at a time, place and pace that suits you – it takes around 1 hour to complete.
• Supporting people with eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties (Dysphagia) – Care Inspectorate Guidance.