FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick: Can we prevent or slow dementia through better senior dining?

On this episode of Food Management’s podcast, FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, our guest is Devra Shiba RD, CSG, LDN, CDP, CMDCP, senior manager of clinical services-area support for Sodexo. As a dietitian in a leadership role, she’s currently focused on a new dementia-focused program called B Integrated, a holistic approach for residents with cognitive disabilities. While dementia has historically been viewed by the medical community—and the general public—as a sad but unavoidable fact of life about getting old, new research keeps pointing to the fact that dementia can be prevented, or at least slowed. In short, it doesn’t have to be the norm when people age. Part of that emerging viewpoint, not surprisingly, is nutrition.

Sodexo Senior dietitians have pooled their expertise in a white paper that breaks down lasting change in dementia care into three pillars: therapeutic hospitality (making dining easy to navigate and social), adapted wellness in culinary (using health-promoting ingredients) and integrated dementia care dining training (operationalizing person-centered care). Shiba breaks down these pillars for us, sharing real-life examples and how to put these philosophies into practice. It’s exciting to think that advances are being made in the area of dementia, something that our senior dining readers experience on a daily basis.