Nambucca Valley Care dietician Karen Abbey has been granted a scholarship to help her complete her PhD, which will look at menus for the aged, and how menus could be improved to help the elderly’s health and well-being.

Ms Abbey said the area had never before been studied in Australia.

As part of her scholarship, she will travel to Canada next year and see how their aged care systems design menus.

This is the first time the Dietician Association of Australia has presented the Faye MacDonald Scholarship, which is specifically aimed at people researching ways to improve food services. It is worth $20,000 over a maximum of three years.

Ms Abbey said nutrition and designing menus for the elderly could be challenging, because they generally had lower appetites and ate smaller meals.

“It can be a challenge to get all the nutrients they need into those small portions,” she said.

“I will be looking at the prime menu to deliver what each person needs, whether that is through food fortification, or supplements.”

As part of her research, Ms Abbey will look at different menus across Australia and at health systems throughout the world.

Her trip to Canada will include a six-day intensive course in food services at the University of Guelph, Ontario, before seeing some of the food delivery systems of that country in action in various centres.

Ms Abbey said she hoped her PhD research would have positive outcomes for the residents at Nambucca Valley Care facilities, as well as throughout the community and Australia, including services such as Meals on Wheels.

She has been working as a dietician for 12 years and has been part of the Nambucca Valley Care team for the past 18months. Ms Abbey said providing geriatric nutrition would be a great challenge into the future, and she was looking forward to beginning her research into the new area of study.