Dining in long-term care and assisted living: Stakeholder perspectives

Meals and dining in long-term care and retirement homes are important for resident quality of life. Residents look forward to eating in a dining room with their tablemates, and eating with others supports social engagement, feelings of belonging, dignity, and identity. COVID-19 infection prevention and control precautions resulted in changes to mealtimes. The aim of the study was to examine team member’s perspectives on mealtime practices in LTC and understand how they have been affected by isolation procedures related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Dining in long-term care and assisted living: Stakeholder perspectives research study used online surveys and telephone interviews to determine perspectives on relationship-centred care activities, changes in mealtime practices due to COVID-19, and how these changes can be managed to ensure mealtimes are as beneficial to residents as possible.

The research study identified the following changes to dining practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic: residents eating in their rooms, spacing residents in common areas for meals, and disposable dish use. Common mealtime challenges included: reduced socializing opportunities at meals, inadequate staffing, reduced family/ volunteer help, and assisting residents to eat. Moreover, the majority of respondents reported feeling conflicted balancing safety and relationship-centred care.

Understanding practices at mealtimes and how they have been affected by COVID-19 isolation procedures is the first-step to developing training and/or other resources that could be used to improve relationship-centred mealtime practices in LTC when standard operational procedures cannot be carried out (e.g., during outbreaks).