The implementation of a pioneering program at the l’Arboç de Mataró school has managed to improve the nutritional and hydration status of students with multiple disabilities and “serious difficulties in eating”.
This was announced this Tuesday by the Maresme Health Consortium (CSdM), together with the El Maresme Foundation and the Furega Foundation, promoters of the project, in a statement in which they explained that it began in 2019 with the evaluation of the swallowing capacity of the students of said school, which reflected that the “majority” suffered from dysphagia, this is a “serious difficulty swallowing”, although currently 93% present a “notable improvement in their diet and hydration” thanks to the program.
This program was developed between 2019 and 2023 and began with an evaluation study in which a total of 33 students participated and which made it possible to observe that they had dysphagia (severe difficulty swallowing) and that, due to the “complexity of managing this disorder, most suffered from malnutrition and did not hydrate properly.
In this regard, the specialist in dysphagia and research director of the CSdM, Pere Clavé, stressed that “100% of the students showed significant alterations in the intake of food and solids, since the majority are affected by significant neurological lesions and have delays in psychomotor development, which makes it difficult for them to suck, chew or swallow”. “This has the consequence that they can choke if they do not take an adapted diet and that it is much more difficult to maintain proper nutrition,” he warned.
To improve this clinical situation, an intervention plan was designed in order to provide diets with modified texture and liquids with different levels of viscosity “adequate to the needs of the students” so that, currently, 93% of the school’s students “The modified texture diet is finished daily and the amount of water intake has doubled in the time they are in the educational center.”
The working group is made up of educational and health personnel from the school and by the CSdM Digestive Motility team, together with the Furega Foundation, Nestlé Health Science and Serhs Food.
The good results have led to the signing of an agreement with the Aspace Confederation, an organization made up of 85 entities dedicated to caring for people with cerebral palsy, with more than 20,000 associates, 5,300 professionals and 230 direct care centers, and with the Federation of the Cerebral Palsy and Multiple Disabilities of Catalonia (Fepccat), made up of 14 entities, with the aim of carrying out training and research activities linked to the project.
After pointing out that, in addition to a swallowing, nutritional and oral hygiene evaluation, the project included a training intervention for teaching staff and families and an “adaptation” to diets so that students can have a “safe and balanced intake at the level of nutrition”, its promoters defended that it is “an example of collaboration”.
“The result is an improvement in the quality of life of the students, which can be replicated in any other center for people with neurological disorders,” they stated.
