Is Your Community Dining Room Rising to the Challenge Set by the American Geriatrics Society? Part 2

Mealtimes meeting the American Geriatrics Society recommendations and the latest CMS regulations are goals. Communities have been challenged with the problem of seniors changing their habits from relying on appetite stimulants or high calorie supplements to keep their weight up to a healthy number. The community can easily provide the setting in the dining room to reverse old, unhealthy habits by understanding their seniors and what they respond to in order to optimize social supports.

This is about supplying nutrition and foodservice but, in a positive and hospitable way that benefits the resident and shows the pride of the food server. It is about kindness on a daily basis that overflows and spreads over residents and coworkers. The result in these minor adjustments that can be learned by your food servers will encourage the diner to eat at an enjoyable, leisurely pace, eat more than just picking at their food, and probably not need prescriptions to enhance their appetite or additives to gain weight. It will come naturally.

The seniors entering your dining room have those same feelings as when they were twenty-four going out to dinner.  When they step into the community dining room they deserve respect, consideration, enjoyment, leisure, and the harvest of their lives. Their appetites will respond to any setting such as this one.

Our B♥ Kind® Tip: Your community dining room can improve resident weight-loss management!

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About Cindy Heilman

Cindy is the founder and owner of Kind Dining®, which she began in 2006. She’s traveled across the country and Canada working with and training senior living communities that want to create an exceptional dining experience for their residents and staff. In addition, she certifies select professionals in her Kind Dining® philosophy and provides tools, now in an eLearning format, that make learning stick and help people put insights into action. As a result of her work, clients often share their staff has a new sense of purpose, get along better and keep their focus and energy on what matters most. In fact, she wrote a book, Hospitality for Boomers on how to attract residents and keep good team members. In her free time, she enjoys walking Oregon trails and cheering on her favorite soccer teams, the Portland Thorns and Timbers.

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