Baptcare-Westhaven Community, Vic - Food services program

Food for thought

Westhaven Community received a Better Practice in Aged Care Award for its food services program. Customer service, choice, resident involvement and cooperation are the keys to this very successful and innovative food services program for 127 residents. It can be difficult to tailor recipes and menus to suit individual needs and preferences, however Westhaven Community manages to do just that despite its large culturally and linguistically diverse mix of residents from all four corners of the globe.

There are many continuous improvement activities around food and food service that are conducted at Westhaven. Together these ensure that residents are happy with the selection, quality, variety and taste of the food offered. Changes to menu items and food selections are made almost instantly to ensure resident satisfaction. Each food issue is followed up with the person who raised the matter. This helps ensure an individual response and total satisfaction. Collectively this helps assure the success of the total food program operation at Westhaven.

At Westhaven food selection and menu planning is, as much as is practicable and possible, entirely responsive to what residents want or ask for. Food services are part of the agenda at every resident meeting. The chef also personally visits each of the six dining rooms during the week to ensure that even those who don't attend residents' meetings have an opportunity to give feedback and comment on the food. Residents are also welcome to visit the chef to discuss their individual needs. It's a program involving three-way communications between the food services contractor, Westhaven management and staff and the residents. This basic philosophy also means that despite the high number of residents, there is a sense that the individual person matters and that their issues are taken seriously.

Each dining area is attended by the same food service staff every day. This means that the catering staff also get to know the residents very well and personally tend to the needs of the smaller groups of residents in the dining area.

People love to talk about food, it is considered one of the most important aspects of quality at Westhaven. Food satisfaction is used as one of the key indicators for overall resident satisfaction at the home. Residents are encouraged to be part of the menu planning and most suggestions where possible are tried. Westhaven also has a significant cultural and linguistically diverse population which makes food satisfaction even more challenging. The system that they have set up through appropriate assessment and questioning means that all residents or families are genuinely asked about food issues and there is an attempt to meet the needs that they identify. As an example of catering to individual needs, the chef asked an Italian resident for her own recipe, then made her dish to her liking. This has now been added to the menu for other residents if they choose, especially to the enjoyment of other Italian residents. This is one small example of where an individual resident's very personal needs have been met to the benefit of the whole community at the home.