Wellness Dining Program
As part of our Life Enrichment Program, the Memory Care Wellness Dining Program at Alden Courts of Huntley provides a quality dining experience for our residents that preserves dignity during the nourishment process and assists residents in eating independently for as long as possible. The program also helps address unnecessary weight loss and increases the enjoyment of eating delicious foods.
Key benefits include:
- Mediterranean-influenced menu options to increase brain health
- Sensory stimulation to cue meal times and increase appetite, including the use of serene music and aromatherapy
- Presenting meals on bold, colored plates to entice consumption
- Adaptable dining equipment to ease the use of utensils and cups
- Serving meals in a tiered-step approach
- Offering bite-size finger foods to increase independent eating
- Monitoring and prompting to maximize nourishment at each meal
- Ensuring proper hydration
- Modeling through staff and resident table time
- Walk-to-Dine Program that maintains dignity
- Specialized programming to reinforce feeding skills
- Hands-on implementation by memory care professionals
Alden Courts of Huntley’s Commitment to Resident Nutrition and Intake
The researchers at the Vision & Cognition Lab of the Center for Clinical Biopsychology at Boston University report that 40 percent of individuals with severe Alzheimer’s lose an unhealthy amount of weight. They believe this might be explained by the visual-cognitive deficiencies caused by Alzheimer’s that affect the ability to see and remain interested in food based on its presentation. People with Alzheimer’s cannot process visual data—like contrast and depth perception.
We are happy to share that the use of bold, colored plates – like those being used at Alden Courts of Huntley – has been shown to increase food intake by 25%. To read more, click here.