Table 2.
Data driven strategies to support mealtime social engagement and continuity for families living with dementia
| Key LNT concepts | Strategies |
|---|---|
| Taking time, Focusing attention | • Make meals an important ritual in the day, not a task; avoid competing activities and interruptions |
| • Sit and eat together | |
| • Provide sufficient time to eat in a calm environment | |
| • Eat out of the home sometimes, away from distractions of meal preparation | |
| • Focus on making the dining experience calm and relaxed | |
| Communicating activities, staying informed, gain knowledge, share and create stories | • Use conversation aids e.g. the environment, the food, letters and messages from family and friends |
| • Talk about the day | |
| • Reminisce | |
| • Support communication by prompting around names, summarizing conversation etc. | |
| Making decisions | • Provide options when grocery shopping, making meals and eating out |
| • Discuss issues/plans | |
| Emotional support | • Be appreciative and encouraging |
| • Give full attention, listen | |
| • Be easy-going; use humor | |
| • Check in with genuine care | |
| • Go on special eating outings to alleviate daily stress | |
| • Share burdens | |
| Physical support | • Provide assistance as needed with meal preparation and eating |
| • Simplify the menu, select meals that are easy to make and eat | |
| • Take-out/pot-luck for entertaining | |
| • Access external resources to provide support when needed | |
| Psychological support | • Talk about the food and things you can see |
| • Ask questions that are focused on opinions or preferences | |
| • Gently redirect if conversation is repetitive or help to identify words as needed | |
| • Recognize that listening is also participation | |
| • Rehearse names and connections before getting together with others | |
| • Sit near a window, listen to the radio, read letters/emails together to provide topics for conversation | |
| • Help make decisions about menu choices when eating out | |
| Taking part, enabling and negotiating roles | • Recognize the meaningfulness of individual mealtime tasks including feeding oneself |
| • Share mealtime tasks or supervise and let others take on roles | |
| • Be flexible; recognize daily differences in capacity and interest | |
| • Breakdown tasks and match abilities to tasks | |
| • Provide opportunities for repetitive activities that are meaningful | |
| • Discuss, observe ways that a role can be adapted but still accomplished | |
| Being creative | • Make meals attractive |
| • Spend time planning and discussing meals together | |
| • Food is a common interest that is retained throughout life; use it to stimulate interest | |
| • Try new foods and recipes | |
| Being accepted, acknowledged, veiling reality | • Understand that change is inevitable; flex and transform |
| • Focus on supporting connection and dignity | |
| • Focus on current strengths and overlook mistakes or missteps | |
| • See the individual, not the disease or the activity | |
| • Provide praise and encouragement; be appreciative for contributions | |
| • Seek to understand opinions and desires | |
| • Leave things that are difficult or challenging ‘unsaid’; protect dignity | |
| • Avoid making others feel self-conscious or embarrassed [e.g. if appetite is poor reduce portion size] | |
| • Show respect for choices | |
| • Be aware of and meet preferences | |
| Promote routines and traditions | • Keep meal routines and traditions as much as possible [e.g. where to sit, timing, and process of the meal] |
| • Identify essential aspects of traditions that need to be retained as changes happen; adapt less essential components | |
| • Replace less meaningful tasks with new routines and traditions that support engagement and continuity of identity |