Meet Ingrid Small – our Clinical Lead Dietitian – for Malnutrition Awareness Week 2020
This week is Malnutrition Awareness Week 2020 (05 – 12 October). There has never been a more important time to raise awareness of the importance of eating and drinking well in later life.
Hot off the heels of last week’s Healthy Eating Week 2020, during which we shared daily healthy challenges and information about what Dietitians and Specialist Mental Health Dietitians do, this week introduce you to our Clinical Lead Dietitian, Ingrid Small. Ingrid tells us about her and the Dietetic team’s role at GMMH and national and regional information about malnutrition.
“Hi, I’m Ingrid Small, Clinical Lead Dietitian here at GMMH. My role is to close the gap between mental and physical health. I support service users whose engagement in treatment at times may be a challenge due to mental health conditions; and I specialise in supporting people with diabetes and eating disorders.
Dietitians are the only nutrition professionals to be regulated by law, and you must study for three to four years in order to be called a ‘Dietitian’. Myself and the Dietetic team at GMMH use the most up to date public health and scientific research on food, health and disease and translate it into practical guidance to enable people to make appropriate lifestyle and food choices.
We also provide bespoke training to members of staff across the Trust so they can advise, educate and support the service users that they work with with their lifestyle and nutrition.
You can read more about our Dietetic team, and how we fit into the Trust’s Allied Health Professionals Strategy here: https://gmmh-staging.verseonecloud.com/download.cfm?doc=docm93jijm4n5358
On Malnutrition Awareness Week 2020, I also wanted to share some useful national and regional resources about malnutrition. Firstly, the Malnutrition Taskforce (MTF). The MTF is united to combat preventable and avoidable malnutrition and dehydration among older people in the UK. Their website includes many useful resources, including a Self Screening Resource Pack, Eating Well in Later Life, Malnutrition in England factsheet and End of life care resources.
You can also find a range of resources developed by MFT and BAPEN specifically for Malnutrition Awareness Week 2020, which can be shared freely amongst service users, carers, friends, family and colleagues:
- Are you eating enough
- Be weight-loss aware
- Malnutrition myths
- Noticed unintentional weight loss
- Understanding risk of weight loss
- Online self-screening
Secondly, the Malnutrition
Pathway. The Pathway aims to raise awareness of the issue of disease-related malnutrition in the community and to provide professionals and patients with materials to assist them to identify, manage and reverse malnutrition. You can sign up to their newsletter, in which you will find all things relating to adult malnutrition in the community including new tools, guidance and reports, recent events and local activities. Their website also includes lots of useful resources for healthcare professionals and patients and carers.”
Finally, I wanted to share information about the Greater Manchester Nutrition and Hydration Programme. The Programme aims to make sure that older people (65+) in Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale and Stockport are eating and drinking well enough to remain healthy and independent. They have created a very useful Eat, Drink, Live Well Guide, which includes top hints and tips to improve your appetite. You can find lots more resources, including an E-Learning module on malnutrition and swallowing difficulties on the Age UK Salford website.”
