Care homes: Hydration, nutrition and swallow

Islington
Under Review — this page was due to be reviewed by Thursday, 11 August 2022. The information shown here may be outdated.

Poor hydration and poor nutrition can often lead to confusion, falls, and poor health. It is therefore crucial that those working in care homes have a good knowledge of how to promote good hydration and nutrition. 

The two teams involved in the promotion of hydration and nutrition are the Nutrition and Dietetics Service and the Speech and Language team.  

The Nutrition and Dietetics team focuses on the patient's food and fluid intake, implementing a care plan to ensure the patient meets their nutrition and hydration needs.

The Speech and Language team’s focus is on a person’s ability to safely swallow and changes that might be needed to allow for safe hydration and nutrition. 


Speech and Language team 

If a care home has a resident whom they feel would benefit from a speech and language team (SLT) review, they can refer by:

  • completing the SLT referral form (see Downloads)
    • if the referral is for a swallow review, also complete and send the swallow screen (see Downloads).

Once these forms are completed, send to central booking for screening and triage.
e: arti.centralbooking@nhs.net

If a staff member wishes to discuss a possible referral, they can contact the SLT team directly.
t: 020 7527 1545
e: whh-tr.IslingtonCommunitySLT@nhs.net


Speech and Language training webinar

This Dysphagia Training Webinar Competency Level 3 has been produced by the Islington Speech and Language team. It covers the role of the team, dysphagia training to competency level 3, and how to refer to the service. 

The webinar is expected to take between 45-60 minutes to complete. It can be completed in chunks or in a single sitting, alone or in a group to allow discussion.

See Downloads for:

  • webinar slides (PDF)
  • script of the training webinar that follows the audio files of the presentation.

Nutrition and Dietetics team

If a care home has a resident whom they feel would benefit from a dietetic review, they can refer by:

  • completing the Community Nutrition and Dietetics referral form (see Downloads)
  • patients must have a MUST score above 2 (include recent weight, height, BMI, weight loss history on referral).

Once these forms are completed, send to central booking service.
e: arti.centralbooking@nhs.net 

If a staff member wishes to discuss a possible referral, they can contact the Dietetics team directly.
t: 020 3316 8871
e: dietitians.whitthealth@nhs.net 


Nutrition and Dietetics webinar

If you would like to access reliable nutrition webinars designed by dietitians, as well as further written information and patient resources, please use the links to the right.


Review date: Thursday, 11 August 2022