CHANGING YOUR MIND
POINT 1: The human brain weighs just over 2lbs. Yet it has the capacity to consume 15 – 20 % of our energy.
POINT 2: Dr. David Horrobin wrote an interesting book named “The Madness of Adam and Eve”. Among other things he focussed on our evolutionary history. Man moved out of the east African rift valley along rivers and coastlines. Our ancestors ate a lot of fish, game and foraged on nuts, berries and the like. Dr. H emphasised the importance of diet and the particular importance of Omega 3 fatty acids. He believed that if we don’t provide our brains with the nutrients that evolution suggests we require then our mental states become increasingly vulnerable to illness.
POINT 3: By the age of around five I was aware that “fish makes you brainy”. In fact, I went through a phase when I believed that my brain comprised of a mesh of fish bone. For the curious amongst you, the MRI scan and X-Ray were inconclusive.
POINT 4: There is a rapidly growing evidence base suggesting that a healthy diet can combat anxiety disorders, depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD and Alzheimer’s disease. A balanced diet will also contribute towards improved memory, concentration and a decrease in aggression and anti – social behaviour
POINT 5: Spirit of `76`s site has recently reported that a single Risperdal Consta depot injection costs £148.55.
POINT 6: The NHS is very adept at surreptitiously sweeping any financial deficit under the nearest available carpet but I do know that last year my ward alone was overspent on medication by a sizeable five figure sum.
POINT 7: I know of no in-patient psychiatric facility that doesn’t provide embarrassingly cheap, processed, largely re – heated meals.
So where did it all go wrong. I think it’s indicative of the power of the medical profession and Big Pharma but nurses aren’t blameless. Mealtimes used to be an extremely important part of the nursing day, now they’re almost incidental. We also defer too much to the “evidence base” and are reluctant to try anything before the researchers report their findings. Why? Wasn’t the nursing process supposed to be fluid? There are endless care opportunities, enhancing diet being just one of them, where there is nothing to be lost by trying something. If it doesn’t work evaluate and re – assess. Simple.
It’s time to flex our nursing muscles. Let’s put diet back on the agenda. Evolutionary history demonstrates its importance, my Grandmother knew its importance, commonsense tells us it’s important and now, at last, the “evidence base” agrees. What, exactly, have we got to lose?
Footnote: Dr Horrobin didn’t worry too much about referencing and balanced argument. He had an opinion and he wasn’t slow to share it. He upset a few people. He has passed away now and I understand that he was the first medic ever to receive a less than glowing obituary in the BMJ. Make of that what you will.
OSB wrote:
“We also defer too much to the “evidence base” and are reluctant to try anything before the researchers report their findings. Why?”
and also:
“Dr Horrobin didn’t worry too much about referencing and balanced argument. He had an opinion and he wasn’t slow to share it.”
Bizarre. Are you reading the same blogs as me? This is something that I started writing about last night and was hoping to post later today.
I agree that institutional food has to be amongst the worst served anywhere and is fed to those most in need of nutrition and the benefits of healthy food.
The staff in our residential home only cook at weekends when the chef is off and the food is usually better, this is not because the chef is crap he isn’t given much to work with, but because they become a little bit finacially inventive with the float and go out to buy decent food. They also sometimes put their hands in their own pockets and club together to provide more interesting meals than the processed garbage that’s in the freezer.
John Briffa has an excellent site and often links the benefits and affects of foods with regards to illnesses and health.
Will look up Horrobins’ book thanks for the tip.
Forgot to add this – http://www.drbriffa.com/
The staff cook? They have a chef?
When Mr Man was in the psychiatric ward in the general hospital the food was very good, just as it is on all the other wards. They catered for special diets and they had a good choice. The patients could choose from a list the day before.
But when he was in the psychiatric hospital the food was very bad. The patients didn’t have a choice, and they didn’t cater very well for special dietary needs. Mr Man is like “Mr Cheese” but even he couldn’t eat their cauliflower cheese.
In the respite home he has to cater for himself, which usually means a microwave curry.
Food…….slop. I’ve seen some dreadful food and even worse practices over the years. Patients (and I use the word wisely) at one hospital had to empty any waste into a slop bin, which was then ceremoniously carted through the word and left for collection. Meal times, instead of being used as an opportunity for interaction, became an opportunity for observation……colluding with people’s paranoia. Food is a wonderful way to demonstrate warmth and compassion, most cultures find a symbolic role for it, but in most hosptals I have worked in it’s merely a means of staying alive.
Meh. Psychiatric hospital food. Aside from the bad quality, Malcy is right about the loss of the use of mealtimes for interaction.
I worked in learning disability services before I started the mental health nursing degree, and in every service I worked in, staff and clients always ate together so that they could interact socially as they ate. They have the same policy in my local psychiatric adolescent unit. But on the adult wards the trust policy specifically bans staff from eating any of the food on the trolley. Naturally, this doesn’t stop staff from snaffling any leftovers – they just disappear into a side room to do so, away from the eyes of any managers. But it does stop mealtimes being used for therapeutic engagement.