Malnutrition Awareness at Torbay Hospital

Irene McClelland is Mealtime Enhancement Lead working in the department of nutrition and dietetics at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust. Irene explains more around malnutrition, how we can support people at risk and some of the important messages that Malnutrition Awareness Week aims to raise.

We often don’t think of malnutrition as a very common condition, but it affects millions of people across the UK.

Malnutrition is defined as a serious condition that happens when your diet doesn’t contain the right amount of nutrients. It means poor nutrition and can refer to both undernutrition and overnutrition.

Some of the most common signs and symptoms include unintentional weight loss, low body weight, lack of appetite for food and drink, feeling tired and weak, getting ill often and taking a long time to recover.

Anyone can become malnourished, but it particularly affects those with long term conditions that affect appetite, weight and digestion, that have problems swallowing and that are socially isolated. People who are aged 65 and over are particularly at risk.

Malnutrition Awareness Week is an opportunity to raise awareness and start conversations about malnutrition. It is often very preventable; identifying and preventing problems early is much better for people than the experience of treatment at a later date.

For our teams of dietitians in the NHS, we provide a wide range of help and support for people in our Torbay and South Devon communities. People who are admitted to our hospitals are screened using the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) which helps us to identify any additional support or care planning they need for their stay in hospital.

If someone is identified as malnourished, we will use a combination of higher energy protein meals and snacks, as well as oral supplements. We also have special crockery and cutlery available for patients with dementia or dexterity issues, which are designed to increase the amount of food and drink eaten.

Our volunteer mealtime companions contribute enormously to people’s experience while receiving such support in hospital. They help frail, elderly or people who struggle with eating and drinking on wards across our hospitals, and we are always on the lookout for more volunteers.

If inpatients don’t progress as well as we would like, they are referred to the dietetic inpatient team who can provide more specialist support. Follow-up appointments are carried out in people’s homes or at outpatient appointments by our community dietitian colleagues.

There is also specialist support available to certain conditions or groups, with a dedicated oncology dietetic team providing people with cancer and/or are receiving treatment with specialist support. Our paediatric dietetic team support children both in hospital and out in the community.

There are some practical things we can all do to look out for friends, family and people in our communities. If you know someone who is particularly at risk, please ask them about their appetite and health.

Looking out for the common signs and symptoms is commonly how people are identified as needing additional support. By listening carefully, you may identify some of the obvious signs of malnutrition and some of the wider, social causes and implications that could hint at a wider problem. Despite the cost of living crisis, it is still very important to eat well to stay nourished.

There are lots of things that people can do to support their own nutrition. We know that a balanced diet is essential for health and wellbeing and this is the most effective way to stay healthy.

People who experience malnutrition often make use of nutrient dense foods and use these to increase the intake. More information on this can be found on www.bda.uk.com. If you would like to find out more about the activities and key messages of UK Malnutrition Awareness Week, please visit www.malnutritiontaskforce.org.uk/uk-malnutrition-awareness-week-2023

If you are interesting in becoming a mealtime companion volunteer, please find out more on our website: https://www.torbayandsouthdevon.nhs.uk/about-us/working-with-us/volunteering/