Heathcote Health goes ‘from good to excellent’ with Maggie Beer Foundation training
Jenny Casey has worked at Heathcote Health for 10 years. Starting in cleaning, Jenny progressed to the kitchen where she has worked for the last 5 years as catering manager and chef.
Heathcote Health operate a small rural aged care home with 42 beds.
In May 2024, they began the Maggie Beer Foundation's Trainer Mentor Program. The training helps aged care homes improve the food, nutrition and dining experience for residents. It also helps aged care homes prepare to meet a new dedicated food and nutrition Quality Standard under the new Aged Care Act.
From 1 July, providers will need to understand residents’ specific nutritional needs and any physical restrictions to eating and drinking. They will also need to know what and how residents like to eat and drink.
‘I think the Maggie Beer training has been one of the best things that we've ever done,’ says Jenny. ‘We’re absolutely loving it.’
Jenny creates Heathcote Health’s menus and manages a rostered team of 22 chefs, cooks, kitchen hands and servers. She has been impressed with how responsive the trainer has been.
‘I’m in constant contact with him. If I have a problem or a question, I know I can call him. We’ve also got lots of training exercises to do on the Maggie Beer website,’ says Jenny.
‘We have had a few challenges but we’re kicking goals now. Some of our staff took to the changes quicker than others, but the training helped them realise that all of the changes are for the residents’ benefit.’
Jenny believes Heathcote Health were headed in the right direction prior to the training, but it helped her team refine many aspects.
‘Prior to the training we would do a lot of the everyday food like stews, casseroles and soups. And cold meats and salads. It was a bit bland,’ says Jenny.
‘I’d say our food was good prior to the training, but we wanted to make it excellent. Now we’re doing things like using fresh herbs with potato salad and Greek salad with feta cheese. Things the residents wouldn’t normally have had and they’re really enjoying it.
‘The training helped us enhance our flavours and concentrate more on texture modified meals.'
Older people need higher levels of some critical nutrients, like protein and calcium, and Maggie Beer brings that specialised knowledge.
‘Now we use more fresh food and fortify the food with protein,’ says Jenny.
‘And we’re making our own sweets now and fortifying that with protein as well. We had problems maintaining the weight of our high care residents, but with the training we made the food more flavoursome and fortified it with protein, and lots of them have put on weight.’
As well as weight gain, Heathcote Health is receiving rave reviews from residents about the changes they’re making.
‘The residents are loving it – they’re asking for more. Some of our residents are non-verbal and their smiles and thumbs-up tell us they’re really loving the food. The training really has made a big difference to the residents,’ says Jenny.
Getting feedback so Heathcote Health can better understand their residents’ needs and preferences has been a key takeaway from the training.
‘We involve the residents as much as we can with the food. We talk to them about what they like. They give us ideas and we try them out. We also do food forums where we put on morning tea for a group of residents and have a conversation about the food,’ says Jenny.
The training aims to improve the entire dining experience. The trainer shows staff how to stimulate appetites and use food to encourage social interaction to combat loneliness.
‘We encourage people to eat in the dining room as much as we can,’ says Jenny.
‘We do a cooked breakfast every Friday and cook fresh afternoon tea every day. We’re baking bread too. All of this fills the dining spaces with lovely aromas, which brings people out.’
Heathcote Health are only halfway through the training, but its positive impact is benefitting residents.
‘Now we’re inspired to try things like putting food in the dining room instead of serving it out of the kitchen, and that helps bring people into the dining spaces,’ says Jenny.
‘We’ve also improved the dining room by updating the furniture and putting pictures on the wall. And we’ve put some acoustic tiles in there to keep the noise down.’
Managing noise can be particularly important for residents with dementia or other needs.
The training also emphasises the importance of incorporating gardens into residents’ lifestyles and food.
‘We’re putting in an edible garden now, with herbs and citrus trees, rhubarb and other fruit trees,’ says Jenny. ‘We started that a while ago, but the training has really pushed it along.’
For Jenny and her staff, the main reward is knowing residents are enjoying the improvements they have made.
‘One of our residents wrote a letter saying how happy she is now, and that she feels like a person, not a number. She thanked us for all the lovely food, and it made us feel like we’re heading in the right direction,’ says Jenny.
Jenny is an advocate for the Maggie Beer Foundation training and talks to aged care colleagues about how change can be achieved.
‘Some people think that [improvements in aged care food and dining] can’t be done. I have encouraged people to put their name down,’ says Jenny.
‘Our organisation has gone from good to excellent as a result of the training.’
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