To provide person-centred, care you need to create mealtimes that are safe, supportive and enjoyable for residents.
Everyone has their own mealtime needs and preferences, and these can change. Ask for regular feedback from residents. You can do this through things like surveys and regular meetings. Have clear follow-up about what you’ll do to fix any issues that come out of the feedback. This empowers residents and gives you valuable information about how you can improve the care and services you deliver, including mealtimes. If you don’t take any action to respond to feedback or complaints, and don’t improve, residents and their families can become unhappy and lose their trust in the service. As can the Commission.
You can also ask for feedback through casual conversations. Encourage staff to talk with residents during mealtimes and ask residents to share their feedback with staff. This can encourage positive relationships between residents and staff.
We want to share some examples we’ve found during our targeted monitoring visits that focus on food, nutrition and dining. These examples show how services have created exciting initiatives and meaningful dining experiences when they have listened to residents and acted on their feedback.
‘Residents wanted more variety in our menu but they were finding it hard to tell us exactly what they wanted. We decided to hold a monthly banquet so they could try a range of dishes each month and tell us, there and then, what they liked and why.’ (Hospitality Services Manager, Victoria)
‘Quite a few residents used to get really upset about the amount of food that went to waste after lunch service. We set up a Food Waste Program and now these same residents help turn the waste into mulch – it’s great for our veggie garden.’ (Lifestyle Co-ordinator, Queensland)
‘We have a few First Nations residents here and I think they were missing food from home. We asked them to find us some recipes. We’ve had roo tail and crocodile on the menu so far – and there will be kangaroo skewers next week!’ (Clinical Care Co-ordinator, Western Australia)
‘After Iris* had a stroke, she was put on a minced and moist diet by the speech pathologist. She really missed her sandwiches. I got all the kitchen staff together and we learned how to make an IDDSI (International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative) approved minced and moist sandwich. We make them for Iris most days now, she says they’re almost as good as the real thing.’ (Chef, South Australia)
Feedback lets residents express how they feel about their dining experience and the taste, variety, quality and quantity of their food. You may receive some feedback as a complaint. If that happens work to resolve the issue quickly and tell residents what you’re doing to address their complaints. This can improve residents’ satisfaction, let them know they are being heard, and boost their quality of life.
*Not her real name
Our resources
- Food and dining preferences fact sheet – a planning sheet for recording a resident’s preferences around food and dining.
- Analysis of food and dining experiences in residential aged care services - this report is a summary and analysis of information from interviews with 365 aged care residents from services across Australia.
