While some forgetfulness is a normal part of the aging process, many adults also experience dementia later in life. Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia, impacts more than six million Americans, with the number of diagnoses predicted to rise to 13 million by 2050. Many people with a dementia diagnosis will enter long-term care communities for care, with nearly half of all residents having Alzheimer’s disease or a related type of dementia.
Life with Alzheimer’s isn’t easy. The cognitive loss, regardless of how quickly it progresses, causes confusion and frustration for older adults, making even the most basic tasks challenging. Eating is one of these tasks. For older adults in a residential setting, there are opportunities to receive more person-centered care like Alzheimer’s-specific dining services. What strategies can you use to make mealtime a pleasant, empowering experience for your residents with Alzheimer’s disease?
Let’s start with some background information on Alzheimer’s disease and its effects on the brain and body.
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
Alzheimer’s disease is caused by accumulated plaques and tangles in the brain. Lifestyle factors and genetics also affect how and when the condition could onset. Because it’s a progressive disease, a person loses their cognitive ability over time rather than all at once. There are three stages:
- Preclinical – Starting as early as middle adulthood (40+), the brain begins to change, but there are no noticeable behavior changes.
- Mild – Here, small instances of forgetfulness begin to show up, like struggling to remember names, misappropriating finances, or misplacing frequently used items. This stage is also diagnosed as mild cognitive impairment.
- Moderate – More significant emotional and behavioral challenges are present in this stage, such as having trouble learning new things, forgetting familiar names, and losing the ability to do basic ambulatory and self-care tasks. Motor problems are also present here, so you might notice some of your residents needing help eating.
- Severe – In the last stage of the disease, a person begins to lose physical abilities, has significant memory impairments, and cannot do many things themselves, like eating or walking.
Setting the Tone for an Enjoyable Meal
When you walk into a restaurant, one of the first things you notice is the ambiance. What is the lighting like? Is there music playing? Does the staff seem welcoming? What does the table setting include? These factors also make a difference to your residents with Alzheimer’s.
However, the level of care your long-term care community provides defines what your dining experience needs to look like. For example, residents with more severe cases of Alzheimer’s may not recognize foods they usually eat and often have an impaired sense of smell and taste, so they may need a more modified diet and a calmer environment than residents with mild cognitive impairment.
By intentionally addressing residents’ needs, your Alzheimer’s dining services will help to promote a positive atmosphere and encourage residents to participate as their abilities allow at mealtime. Here are a few suggestions to help you make empowered eating happen in your community:
- Provide residents with reminders for mealtimes and regularly check in with them about snacking.
- Reduce anxiety and overstimulation during a meal by eliminating unnecessary noise or playing soft, calm music. This is an excellent opportunity to poll your residents on their favorite music, too!
- If you have residents that don’t function well in large groups or have more significant needs, have a separate sensory-friendly mealtime. However you structure your mealtimes, make sure you allow residents to interact with each other. No person should ever eat alone unless it’s absolutely necessary.
- Simplify the table setting, only providing what’s necessary to eat with the meal. Encourage independence by giving them utensils and dishes that fit their abilities. For example, use spoons instead of forks or serve foods one at a time on smaller plates rather than everything at once.
- Don’t be afraid to incorporate color into your dining area, cutlery, dishes, and food. However, avoid using patterns or extremely bright colors that may induce stress in your residents.
- Appeal to all the senses with different smells, flavors, textures, and colors. Modified diets for people with Alzheimer’s aren’t always known for being vibrant or flavorful, but it’s entirely possible to have a delicious meal that works with medical needs.
- Normalize assistance for residents that have a harder time eating. Whether you incorporate more family-style meals into the day’s meal schedule or regularly have staff eat at the same tables as residents, it’s essential to make sure that no one feels “othered” because they have different needs than other residents.
What foods are good for people with Alzheimer’s disease to eat?
Once you’ve created a worry-free zone for residents with Alzheimer’s to eat their meals, the next step is curating a menu of the most appropriate foods. With the right diet, the risk for conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease – all risks for Alzheimer’s disease. The National Institutes on Aging recommends the DASH diet, from the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay Study, as a preventative measure. It consists of foods like:
- Leafy greens and other vegetables
- Berries
- Fish and poultry
- Nuts, beans, and whole grains
- Wine
- Olive oil
Liberalized diets are also an excellent idea to promote empowered eating because they are based on a resident’s food preferences but still account for any modification needed due to a health condition.
Empowerment is Essential for Alzheimer’s Dining Services
Empowerment is at the center of creating Alzheimer’s dining services that residents actually benefit from. That’s why we created the Empower program to help long-term care community leaders bring Alzheimer’s dining services to their residents. It incorporates freshly prepared finger foods that are better for residents with motor challenges, increasing their ability to self-feed. We’ve seen this program promote empowerment and give older adults with Alzheimer’s the ability to regain some of the independence they’ve lost due to their condition. Empower is also an option if you’re experiencing staffing shortages, helping residents take charge of their own eating and reducing dependence on staff.
If this sounds like something your long-term care community would benefit from, schedule a consultation with one of the members of our sales team to learn more.
