The independent older Australian: Implications for food and nutrition recommendations

The World Health Organisation has restructured their program for health and the elderly, renaming it Aging and Health, focussing on aging as a part of life rather than a static age group separated from the rest of the population. As the older population becomes more heterogeneous, nutrition and food service providers in the community are faced with new challenges. This paper presents nutrition recommendations relevant to community nutrition programs in Australia including the recently released Dietary Guidelines for Older Australians. The subsequent discussion focuses on issues associated with implementation of community based food and nutrition intervention programs. The following strategies for successful implementation of community based food and nutrition programs were identified: Meals on Wheels services. 1. should maintain a register of food service systems for each site to assist in the planning process. 2. Develop a procedure for the nutritional assessment of menus focussing on a standardised methodology and recipes as well as ensuring trained staff are available to apply the procedure. 3. Validate recommended serving sizes and recommend serving utensils for specific menu items. Provide advice on the purchasing, use and calibration of scales as well as containers. 4. Develop alternative, informal methods of assessing client satisfaction to ensure the clients' experience with the service, rather than their reaction to the experience, be assessed. 5. Develop a management training program which focuses on a "train-the-trainer' strategy to ensure continuous, on-site training. Meeting the nutritional needs of the heterogeneous group of older people implies a modified approach to nutritional support. All those involved in community nutrition organisations need to recognise the significance of the "caring" role as well as that of food provider and the impact of this on the nutritional status of the client. The development of consistent guidelines and tools will assist organisations in meeting the needs of their target groups. As professionals we need to understand and accept the constraints that these organisations deal with to ensure the services we provide are appropriate. These constraints include all of those issues detailed in this paper - production capability, training resources and the availability of volunteers.