Who are we?
We are a Lothian-wide team of dietitians and dietetic support workers who provide specialist nutritional care to care home residents who are malnourished or at high risk of malnutrition.
What do we do?
We nutritionally assess and provide person-centered care plans to people living in care homes, who may be struggling to meet their nutritional needs. Reduced appetite, unintentional weight loss and swallowing difficulties can be common problems for some people living in a care home, which can led to malnutrition if appropriate action is not taken.
Our team works holistically with care home staff, supporting them to provide appropriate nutritional care to their residents following the principles of the Care Inspectorate Good Practice Guidelines – Eating and Drinking Well in Care (2018).
Resources from Dietetic Team to support nutrition in care settings:
These can all be accessed and downloaded by clicking the links in bold green text.
A comprehensive workbook to guide and support staff to monitor and support individual’s nutrition, it can be accessed by clicking the title: Nutritional Support within the Care Home (nhslothian.scot)
Information and recipes to aid with preparing nourishing drinks for individuals, it can be downloaded by clicking on the link: NHS Lothian Nourishing Drinks Leaflet
We have created a template to record your resident’s MUST score and action plan. It can be downloaded by clicking on the link: Care Home MUST Recording Tool
Guidance and suggestions to promote ‘food first’ can be found within the leaflet : Food First – Nourishing Ideas
In addition the dietetics team provide additional seasonal recipes for nourishing drinks throughout the year. the recipes for Summer 2024 can be found on the next link: The Seasonal Nourishing Drinks July 2024 Leaflet.
How to refer?
Please follow this link to Referral Pathways for information on how and who to refer.
Other Guidance and Resources:
Guidance on weight management of care home residents
Please refer to this handout which gives general advice on weight management for care home residents, including links to British Dietetic Association handouts.
Care About Physical Activity (CAPA) : a good practice resource pack from the Care Inspectorate for promoting physical activity in care homes.
NHS Inform 12 week weight management programme
Other Services
Enteral Feeding – Patients with enteral feeding tubes are managed by the Community Enteral Nutrition Team (CENT). They can be contacted on 0131 536 7848 or via email Enteral.nutrition@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
Further information
For information on Dietetics and Nutrition referral processes and training please see the following webpages.
Dietetics and Nutrition: Referral Pathway
Dietetics and Nutrition: Nutrition and Malnutrition Screening (MUST) Education and Training
