Archive for the ‘fill’ category

Essential Standards Outcome 5 Nutritional Standards

February 8, 2012

What CQC outcomes say about Eating and nutritional care

What should people who use services



People who use services:

  • Are supported to have adequate nutrition and hydration.

This is because providers who comply with the regulations will:

  • Reduce the risk of poor nutrition and dehydration by encouraging and supporting people to receive adequate nutrtion and hydration
  • Provide choices of food and drink for people to meet their diverse needs, making sure the food and drink they provide is nutritionally
    balanced and supports their health.

Prompts for all providers to consider
The following prompts relate to all registered providers where they prepare,
or support people who use services to prepare, food and drink. The term
‘provide’ means the preparation of food and drink and includes where the
service gives support to people to eat and drink. The food and drink used may
be purchased either by the provider or by the person using the service. These
prompts do not cover the administration of artificial hydration which may be
essential to maintain hydration.

I thought it might be useful to go through the sections of the outcome individually over the coming weeks so here is section  5A

Ensure personalised care by providing adequate nutrition,
hydration and support

5A Where the service provides food and drink, people who use services
have their care, treatment and support needs met because:

  • Staff identify where the person who uses services is at risk of poor nutrition, dehydration or has swallowing difficulties, when they first begin
    to use the service and as their needs change.

  • Action is taken where any risk of poor nutrition or dehydration is identified
    including any difficulty in swallowing or the impact of any medicines, and a
    referral is made to appropriate services.
  • They know that their medical dietary and hydration requirements are identified and reviewed.
  • Their plan of care includes how any identified risks will be managed.
  • Relevant staff know what a balanced diet is.



They are:

  • Fruit and vegetables.
  • Meat, fish, eggs and beans.
  • Milk and dairy foods.
  • Foods containing fat and sugar.




Learn and Let Go

March 5, 2008

j0341950.jpg It’s just coming up to two years since I moved to Swindon. I lived in a four bedroom house with lots of cupboard space, wardrobe space, attic space and a big garage. All that space is great to have, you can fill it with everything you collect over the years and hardly notice it’s there. And I filled every space to full rather than throw stuff out. How many of you have spaces just like these that you fill with all kinds of stuff you don’t know what to do with? Maybe you keep your old bicycles and cans of paint or whatever it is. Often times I never took the time to go inside and find out what was in there. However I was forced to when it was time to move forward as I had decided to move house. When life said that I had to move forward I had to go inside, and I went inside and I looked at all the stuff I had accumulated over time.

There were lots of things that I wanted to keep as I really liked them and there were lots of things that I wondered why on earth am I holding on to this? Why am I holding onto clothes I haven’t worn for years and gifts that I was given that somebody thought was a gift that makes no sense to me. And it made me think how often do we hold on to stuff that we get from other people instead of just deciding to let it go? Especially if it doesn’t fit. For example how many of you have got that Christmas sweater from a crazy aunt with a polar bear on the front and you put on that smile and say “thank you so much” and you never wear it but you hold onto it because you think you have to, you think that now you own it. You think that just because somebody gives something to you that you have to hold on to it.

Now I was moving to be with my sweetheart to the house that he already lived in. There was no way that I could take all of this stuff with me even thought we would be looking for a new house after I got there, all of this stuff wouldn’t fit into his space. And I realised that the cost of storing all of this stuff would be expensive and that I really had to prioritise what was important to me to keep and what I could not afford to pay that high price for to hold on to it.

At night as I would fall asleep I would think about what was inside all around me. Even in my dreams I would start to go inside and look and see what stuff doesn’t make sense any more? What stuff have I been holding on to that it’s simply time to let it go? Because the cost of moving forward with all that stuff was so high. How many of you have moved before and you find you keep on moving and you bring all of that stuff with you. And you keep on telling yourself “I’ll get rid of it one of these days, I’ll get rid of it or lose it or something” but you keep on holding on to it?

How many of you have ever been travelling and your bags didn’t come with you? All your stuff is lost and it’s painful but inside there’s that little part of you that’s say “Ooh! This is great” Why? Because I get to get something what?

That’s right, I get to get something new. So you go out and you buy new clothes and you try on new things and you want to see what fits you because obviously you were always growing, stuff is always fitting us at different times. Things that used to fit us obviously no longer fit us. It’s a bit like nappies, we all wore nappies as a baby but are we still wearing nappies now? No!! Why not? Because we out grew it. So sometimes as we out grow things we have to let them go.

So this one time I went out and I bought this whole new wardrobe, it was great. Excellent! New skirts, new tops, everything. And then the airline called and guess what? That’s right, they had found my bags. And it was interesting, when the bags showed up, all beat us as I’d been lugging these things all around the world, I took the clothes out and I compared them to the new things that I was wearing and the new things just seemed to fit a little better. I had to decide, did I was to lug all of this stuff around and I looked at the old stuff and I thought you know what? They served me for a while. They kept me protected from the cold or from whatever, and I realised that it had served it’s purpose. I had something better and I valued this new stuff much, much more. It was simply time to just let it go.

Once I let it go, donated it, I felt so free and I thought to myself “Gosh! I could have got rid of that stuff a long time ago” but sometimes right now seems like a much better time to simply let stuff go if it no longer fits you. I realised that I can get rid of stuff any time I want to I don’t have to wait for life to come and take things away from me I can simply say “You know what? This no longer fits, I’m growing up, it’s time to let the old stuff just go.

Some of the things I decided not to let go of though was all the knowledge or all of the learnings because over my life I’ve been learning so much I’ve been learning from my friends, from my parents, from my colleagues and so on, and I realised that as long as I hold on to the learning that’s always going to serve me going forward. So I keep the learnings in side to use when ever I need them and simply let the stuff go.