Targeting Health Improvement via a Nutritional Intervention Program for Adults With Developmental Disabilities and Challenging Behaviors

This article describes how the need for a nutritional intervention program for group home staff was determined, the nature of the program itself, and the impact of the program upon meal composition and on staff and residents. Subjects were supervisors and group home staff members responsible for providing meals in four group homes to 21 residents. The program consisted of two training sessions for staff and follow‐up monitoring through daily photographing of meals, weekly communications with staff, and monthly measuring of the body mass of group home residents. The program was assessed through a time series evaluation of photograph ratings measuring meal composition. Results indicated that meal nutrition and composition improved significantly over the duration of the nutrition intervention program. The authors conclude that a meal enhancement model may be effective in improving meal nutritional compositions in group home and other community‐based settings, thus providing opportunities for improved health status.
Source: Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities - Category: Disability Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research