It’s a Simple Shift to Improve Outcomes in Long Term Care
Awhile back, I wrote about the last time I was able to have my 96 year-old mother to our house for a home-cooked meal. It was Thanksgiving and I served her turkey and all the fixins’ on a Blue Plate. Her eyesight is waning, so the blue background helped her to find her food and as the rim at the side of the plate is tall, it allows her to lift food to her fork with far greater ease and efficiency.
Sadly, Covid restrictions set in and she has not been able to leave her retirement home since. Fortunately, I am recognized by the public health authority as her primary caregiver,
so I am allowed to visit on Sundays after doing a grocery shop for her. Donning my PPE, I enter her suite, put all the groceries away and check on other things to make sure she is all set for the coming week. As I remain distanced, we have a good chat, I read the mail to her and do all those things any good son would do.
Over the months I have really noticed her declining eyesight. With macular degeneration, there is no corrective action that can take place at this time, as she is 96. She is such a courageous soul and keeps striving forward, with her new addiction to Audible Books that her new Alexa reads to her throughout the day. She was an avid movie watcher and now she is an avid listener to books – some fiction but most books she selects provide perspectives on historical events.
In recent visits I have changed up the lunches we have together. Before, I would bring a sandwich from a sub-shop or a local deli. We would each have our sandwich with some chips. Lately though, I have made her some finger foods. For example, a few weeks ago I made her smoked salmon on some thinly sliced Italian bread, along with some crudité and chips. At another visit I presented prosciutto on melon cubes attached together with toothpicks with a balsamic reduction to add a zing. Last weekend I finely diced some cold Swiss Chalet BBQ Chicken and celery mixed with mayo atop some fresh bread, along with some sharp cheddar on Paris Toast with balsamic glaze, some celery sticks, and a small bowl of coleslaw that she could hold in her hand and use a fork to easily serve herself. Ieven added the BBQ Chicken Wing to nibble on – her favorite.
What did I see during these visits? I saw someone I love enjoy every bite and eat the entire offering that I presented. I saw someone engaging in conversation in a conversational way
– relaxed, almost like she was at a dinner party. I heard comments after every bite acknowledging that the meal was tasty, incredible. She commented that this was her favorite way of eating as she could feel first what she was about to eat and identify it immediately before relying on the feedback of taste to discern what it was.
From Forks to Fingers
In recent times she had grown accustomed to take something to her fork thinking it was one thing only to find out once she tasted it that it was something completely different. She would get full on stuffing thinking it was turkey, for example. So, it begs the question, why I have not seen more finger food menus in health care feeding? I walk away each Sunday now knowing she has had a great lunch with me and that she was nourished not only by my visit and my company, but also by the food I prepared for her.
The comment that sticks with me is when, in anticipation of the weekend ahead, she said, “When you come on Sunday, can we have a meal like we did last Sunday? The ‘Pick-up Food’, that was perfect!” It says it all for me. I encourage our Long Term Care facilities and even Acute Care locations to investigate and test the power of Finger Food Menu Items – such a simple thing that can have such positive outcomes.
