Nutrition and Aging Reflection
What were the key takeaway points from the guest
lecture today?
I thought today's lecture was incredibly beneficial in my knowledge not just of aging, but also nutrition. I had no idea how much recovery is impacted by nutrition, and how long it takes to gain back lean body mass once it has been lost. The main things that I took away from this lecture are that a body's systems begin to age at 30, and continue to decline as time goes on. I also learned that elderly adults can lose up to 10% of lean body mass just from being in the hospital for 3 days. As OTs, it is important for us to be able to recognize the signs of malnutrition so that we can help our clients be as functional as possible. Since all patients do not automatically get consults with dieticians, it is important for us to be able to recognize when one might be needed, or to be able to educate our clients on proper nutrition and protein intake to help them recover.
Describe two occupational therapy interventions based on the topic. Each intervention should address a different type of client: individual (1:1), group, or population.
An OT intervention that could be most helpful with an individual could be a meal planning intervention. An OT would be able to work with the client to help with all aspects of this, like financial planning and budgeting for how much they can spend on food. The OT could also help them create their shopping list, and plan for healthy meals that would meet all their nutritional needs. Depending on the setting, a further intervention could be to go to the grocery store with the client, and even meal prep with them.
A group intervention that an OT could do to help prevent sarcopenia would be to have an exercise group. This could be especially helpful for older adults at a skilled nursing facility or an adult day center to help keep them active and prevent lean body mass loss. This could be as simple as a 30 minute session with exercises set to music to keep the adults engaged and motivated. It would not only get them up and moving, but would also encourage social participation among members of the group.
I thought today's lecture was incredibly beneficial in my knowledge not just of aging, but also nutrition. I had no idea how much recovery is impacted by nutrition, and how long it takes to gain back lean body mass once it has been lost. The main things that I took away from this lecture are that a body's systems begin to age at 30, and continue to decline as time goes on. I also learned that elderly adults can lose up to 10% of lean body mass just from being in the hospital for 3 days. As OTs, it is important for us to be able to recognize the signs of malnutrition so that we can help our clients be as functional as possible. Since all patients do not automatically get consults with dieticians, it is important for us to be able to recognize when one might be needed, or to be able to educate our clients on proper nutrition and protein intake to help them recover.
Describe two occupational therapy interventions based on the topic. Each intervention should address a different type of client: individual (1:1), group, or population.
An OT intervention that could be most helpful with an individual could be a meal planning intervention. An OT would be able to work with the client to help with all aspects of this, like financial planning and budgeting for how much they can spend on food. The OT could also help them create their shopping list, and plan for healthy meals that would meet all their nutritional needs. Depending on the setting, a further intervention could be to go to the grocery store with the client, and even meal prep with them.
A group intervention that an OT could do to help prevent sarcopenia would be to have an exercise group. This could be especially helpful for older adults at a skilled nursing facility or an adult day center to help keep them active and prevent lean body mass loss. This could be as simple as a 30 minute session with exercises set to music to keep the adults engaged and motivated. It would not only get them up and moving, but would also encourage social participation among members of the group.
Comments
Post a Comment