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Finger food menu encourages dementia patients to eat in hospital

A new finger food menu for patients living with dementia is being piloted at Stoke Mandeville Hospital during Nutrition and Hydration Week, as part of Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust’s commitment to improve patients’ care and experience.

Nutrition, catering and nursing staff worked together to create a finger food menu which is being piloted on an elderly care ward at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. It will then be rolled out across Wycombe, Amersham and other community hospitals.

Finger foods have become very helpful in encouraging people with dementia to enjoy food and drink again. As dementia progresses people often find cutlery difficult to manage, they also can find it difficult to manage a full meal.

– Nutrition Specialist Nurse Liz Evans
The finger food menu is being piloted on an elderly care ward at Stoke Mandeville Hospital Credit: Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

The menu features foods that will hold their shape when picked up, require limited chewing and are served at room temperature – such as mini quiches, cocktail sausages, small slices of cake and fruit. This can aid in preserving a dementia patient’s eating skills, by triggering their attention and physical interaction with the food, as well as enabling them to eat at their own pace and if they are unable to sit still during meals.

Patients with dementia can experience difficulties with visual perception, so the food will be served on blue plates which provide a colour contrast and help patients identify colour and recognise objects.

Progressive under-nutrition is particularly common among people with dementia. Studies indicate that 20-45% of those with dementia in the community experience clinically significant weight loss over one year.