Powerful Physical Therapy

How To Have The Assisted Living Facility To Meet Your Diet Restrictions

27 January 2015 by Clifford Ramos

As you age, one of the things that often changes is the wide array of foods that you are able to eat. Many times the changes to your diet may be a result of medical issues, or medications that you are taking, but they may also be because your taste has changed, and you no longer like certain foods. It is often easy to avoid foods that you do not like when you are taking your meals in an assisted living facility. They usually offer multiple choices on the menu. Unfortunately, meeting your diet restrictions may not be quite as simple, but it can be done by following a few simple steps.

Make Your Needs Known

Nursing homes, as well as assisted living facilities have rules and regulations that they must abide by when it comes to providing your daily nourishment. They must follow these rules, or they will risk losing any accreditation, or licensure that they have. To meet, or even exceed, the requirements that are put forth, most facilities have a dietitian as a part of their staff, or at least has one as a consultant. Some of the basic dietary rules that must be followed by facilities in the state or California are:

• That they will provide at least three balanced, nourishing meals per day, which will be served at regular meal times. Depending on where you live, they even may be required to provide a snack.
• The facilities must make preparations to offer a food substitution with similar nutritional values if you refuse the initial offering. 
• The food must be prepared using safe methods, and served at the proper temperatures. 
• Menus must be planned out in advance, as well as posted where they are accessible to the residents. 

These are just a few, and while these apply to California, there are similar rules in every state. In addition to these basic requirements, facilities are usually willing to attempt to meet any therapeutic, cultural, or diet preferences that you may have. The first step to getting this done is to ensure that they know what your diet preferences are. 

Offer A Doctor's Order

If your diet preferences are due to a medical condition, have your doctor to write an order pertaining to the types of foods that you must have. If your diet consistency has changed, ask your physician about having a dietitian to work with you to teach you how to modify your own food. Not only will that knowledge help you where you are living, but it will also aid you when you are dining out.

Once you have a prescription in hand, ensure that management of the facility has a copy of this order. This will help to ensure that your dietary needs are met. There may even be additional funding that they are able to draw down from their funding source to ensure that this takes place.

Meeting your dietary restrictions in assisted living facilities (like Harbor View Home) is not as hard as you think. With a little proactive work on your part, they will be cooking just like you prefer for the rest of your stay.

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