AusACPDM Mealtimes Study Day

Issues

• Difficulty if multidisciplinary dysphagia clinic doesn’t exist
• Availability of community services to manage mealtimes
• Complexity as services differ across the states
• Who will drive it and where will the money come from?
• Look at designated funding grants with purpose of researching some aspect of management.
• Does some resources (programming?) input need to be in the places children spend time? i.e – child care, support workers
• How do you move the management of mealtimes for medically compromised children to a community based/continuity of care model?.

Models/Ideas

• Community therapist agency (Novita) donate time for their specialist input within the acute hospital setting
• Therapist need to be able to articulate literature evidence with confidence
• Role of coordinator for a dysphagia assessment/management team - accessing and summarizing information from community teams and emailing in preparation to everyone
• Another forum like this
• Money from Medicare plus being used to pay team members involved in dysphagia management
• National data collection
• Mealtime risk management checklist for assisting with appropriate referrals for carers. Capacity building of carers – information and education agreements
• Information, education and journalizing to help empower parents in management of tube feeding schedules - also into the wider community so parents and clients don’t have to deal with the questions etc
• Marsha Dunnklein video “Taking tubes feeds to school”.