With all the potential challenges that older adults living independently can experience, it’s easy to assume that transitioning to senior living makes getting nutritious meals more accessible. However, even though a supportive senior-focused community increases access to higher levels of assistance and care, eating better may still be challenging, depending on a person’s health needs.
Healthy eating can also easily fall to the bottom of many administrators’ priority lists, especially if the community is dealing with staffing issues—a growing problem employers have faced since 2020. In 2023, Senior Housing News reports that 82% of senior housing and care companies (of all sizes) are experiencing these shortages. Unfortunately, those numbers are only increasing, with more recent statistics showing that up to 99% of communities are short-staffed.
This isn’t the only obstacle to providing residents with healthy, nutritious meals in senior living communities (SLCs). A 2024 study identified the three main priorities for residents in assisted living: physical environment, social environment, and a home-like atmosphere. Nutrition contributes to improving all three.
Because of this, we’ve compiled a list of four common challenges to healthy eating that senior living communities often struggle with.
1. Effects of Cognitive Decline
Although it’s a common belief that cognitive decline is a normal part of aging, it’s not. An aging brain isn’t the same as a young adult, but significant memory loss, disorientation, or personality changes are warning signs of something more than age-related changes.
In SLCs, residents with cognitive decline may experience challenges related to mealtime management. For example, you may have a resident with Alzheimer’s disease who has trouble recalling their dietary restrictions, causing them to eat foods they’re allergic to unintentionally. Even with your staff providing residents with cognitive decline with reminders, they may have difficulty remembering mealtimes, leading to skipped meals. Struggling to recognize hunger and fullness cues can also be a barrier to healthy eating, as it can cause overeating or undereating, increasing the risk for malnutrition and weight loss. Some memory care residents tend to wander, so finger foods are an ideal way to ensure this population eats.
2. Lack of Access to Fresh, Healthy Foods
Another challenge SLCs may face is providing residents with fresh food options, such as vegetables, fruits, or meat. For communities in urban areas or food deserts, areas that lack access to nutritious foods, this poses a major disadvantage to the dietary health of older residents. Potential solutions, like farm-to-table programs and on-site gardens, are feasible for some staff to implement but may be tricky due to physical demands or limited space and resources.
As a result, these obstacles can lead to a reliance on processed or pre-packaged foods—neither of which is recommended for seniors who have specific health needs, like residents with chronic illnesses that cause dietary restrictions. According to research from the National Council on Aging, at least 95% of older adults have a chronic illness such as heart disease or diabetes, so addressing this challenge is a must for SLCs. Poor nutrition can also worsen these conditions, ultimately decreasing the quality of life for residents in your community.
3. Sensory Age-Related Changes
Seniors may experience sensory changes affecting their relationship with food as they age. Decreased taste, smell, and texture sensitivity can make mealtime less enjoyable and decrease their appetite. You might notice residents:
- Pushing food around their plates due to lack of flavor or texture appeal
- Difficulty identifying and requesting preferred foods
- Struggling to manage utensils or navigate dining environments
- Social isolation during meals due to discomfort or disinterest
Adaptations to these changes, such as offering flavorful, aromatic, and visually appealing dishes, are options to help address these sensory age-related changes in your residents. Still, extenuating challenges like staffing shortages or a lack of trained nutrition professionals can make this difficult. Addressing sensory issues also requires you to be creative and take a personalized approach to nutrition care, skills that only some of your staff might be comfortable or confident with.
4. Effectively Managing a Person-Centered, Nutrition-Focused Dining Program
Lastly, not all senior living communities have the tools and support to effectively manage a person-centered, nutrition-focused dining program. But what does that mean?
Person-centered care is an approach that focuses on empowering people to take an active role in their health making decisions that preserve their dignity and value. This can make a massive difference in the quality of life for older adults. It’s also considered the gold standard of care by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and we agree. In an SLC dining program, offering liberalized diets is one way to include residents’ dietary needs and wants, whether from medical restrictions or preferences. However, implementing this type of dining setting can seem like a huge challenge without the proper training and resources.
If this resonates with you, it’s a sign to evaluate your dining program and your residents’ satisfaction levels with the food. When you partner with Culinary Services Group for your food service management program, you’ll have access to everything you need to create a more enjoyable and healthy dining environment for residents in your community. Here are some of the benefits we offer:
- Support with partnering with local farmers to source fresh foods
- Staff education and training on food safety and dietary for older adults
- Registered dieticians to assess residents’ nutritional needs
- Diverse menu options that account for dietary restrictions, cultural specificities, and more
Our plans are also fully customizable, so you can select what’s best for your residents— after all, you know them best. We’re simply a catalyst to help you achieve your goals of creating a healthier, more person-centered dining environment for the older adults in your community.
We’d love to talk to you about our services and how they may benefit your residents. Schedule a consultation with one of our sales team members today to learn more.
