Welcome to the Kent Manual for Mealtimes
This resource helps care home staff to support residents with common eating, drinking and swallowing issues. It also contains advice on when to refer to speech and language therapy or dietetics for specialist assessment. It is aimed at residential and nursing homes for older people and those with dementia.
What is the aim of the manual?
Using the Kent Manual for Mealtimes will help to:
- improve the knowledge and confidence of care staff to support people with eating,drinking and swallowing.
- improve the mealtime experience, quality of life, health and care of residents in care homes and other care settings.
- reduce avoidable distressing incidents and complications related to eating, drinking and swallowing.
It tells you who to refer immediately to SLT or dietetics for specialist support.
It also tells you who doesn’t need to be referred and can safely be managed by care home staff by using the manual.
It gives you clear, practical advice that you can put in place straight away.
It has easy-to-complete forms which give you clear evidence and documentation of the assessment and care plan.
It feeds into the Single Assessment Framework used by CQC by using best practice to provide safe, effective and timely care.
It has been adapted from a successful care home resource which is used in many regions across Scotland and is endorsed by the Scottish Care Inspectorate (adapted with permission from NHS Lothian).
Download the manual
You can view and download the Kent Manual for Mealtimes: Supporting residents with eating and drinking here.
You can also download a template eating and drinking problem chart, for use with residents, as well as a trial of changes record form to document any changes that have been tried, and whether they helped.
Watch the video guide
The training video below tells you more about the manual and how to use it with step-by-step instructions. It is useful to print out appendix 1 to look at while you watch the training video - How to use the manual and complete the forms – with example.
How to use the Kent Manual for Mealtimes
There are clear instructions how and when to refer a person to SLT or Dietetics for assessment, and when the problems could potentially be self-managed by care home staff.
Guidance is in colour-coded sections, which link with an eating and drinking problem chart, which staff can use to identify the most important factors to consider. The guidance is evidence-based and there is a section specifically around support with eating and drinking at the end of life.
The factors are:
- Alertness
- Environment
- Sensory changes
- Positioning
- Pain
- Mouth care
- Helping the person to eat and drink
- Medication
- Reflux
- Social aspects
- Texture
- The person’s preferences
- Rights and risks
- Cognition
- Nutrition
- End-of-life.
The appendix has filled examples of the forms to demonstrate how to use them.
The SLT and community dietetic services are happy to support use of the manual when staff are unsure what to do. Contact your local service with any queries or to arrange a call with one of the team.