Dietetics to me is much more than the food that fuels your body. It is about understanding food and nutrition in the context of the whole person, their family and their preferences. As a dietitian at Therapy Connect, we have the opportunity to work with a wide range of people, including neurodivergent individuals and their families. I like to think of food and nutrition as multidimensional, where it is influenced by and can influence your social and emotional wellbeing, physical health and mental health.
Understanding an individuals eating challenges helps us to determine the nutritional adequacy of their diet and risk of nutritional deficiencies, which is particularly important in our paediatric community. It is absolutely essential that growing children have access to the nutrition they require to grow as optimally as possible. I also have the opportunity to work alongside adolescents and older adults, supporting the nutritional management of complex disabilities to ensure nutritional adequacy later in life.
How does Dietetics help your clients?
I am really lucky that I get to support individuals and families in many different ways with their nutrition challenges and goals.
I work with clients to build knowledge through the provision of education on how food and nutrition can impact or be impacted by certain diseases and conditions. I am a strong believer that knowledge is power, so I am passionate about taking the time to build education into my sessions.
As we as education, the strategies that we work on need to be specific, realistic and achievable to the individual and their family. As food is such a large part of someone’s life, from the time they get up in the morning to the time they go to bed, we need to be sure that the strategies resonate. This can take a few attempts and multiple sessions to really identify what the primary concern or goal might be.
Lastly, I see a big part of my role being to demystify nutrition and dietetics messages, validate families of their nutrition choices and make small tweaks where appropriate. After all, food and nutrition is a big part of everyone’s life and we can’t expect change over night.
How Does Dietetics Work Online?
Dietetics works slightly different from some of our other disciplines at Therapy Connect, where we primarily work alongside parents, caregivers and support staff rather than individuals themselves. This allows us to take on a coaching approach with all of our interventions and allows me to promote a whole-of-family approach.
Dietetics is really about empowering families to be able to build knowledge, confidence and skills to be able to make the appropriate changes or implement nutrition strategies.
When I meet clients online, we spend time exploring and assessing current nutritional challenges and establishing realistic goals. Depending on family or individual needs, I ensure flexibility in availability to see clients whether that be fortnightly, monthly or less frequently. Allowing clients to take ownership of this promotes the trialling of strategies in their own time until we come back together again and re-assess.
Creative Strategies to Engage Clients Online in Dietetics.
When I do have the opportunity to connect directly with paediatric clients online, I really have to think outside the box to ensure my clients remained engaged for the duration of the session. This often includes utilising online games such as the Foodbank Australia Tucker Island App, and sharing a number of visual resources to support the clients learning. These resources might include the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating and LiveLighter Campaign. I am also a huge fan of the whiteboard function on Zoom, which allows my clients to interact and contribute to our working space!
Why I Love Working Online at Therapy Connect: My Top 3 Reasons
- Flexibility to work remotely and maintain a strong work life balance. If it wasn’t for Therapy Connect it would be very challenge for me to continue practicing as a dietitian living on a remote island and leaning into my passion of providing services to people in geographically isolated areas. The trust and autonomy that our leaders empowers us with, allows me to practice with integrity.
- The opportunity to collaborate with an exceptionally talented and experienced group of clinicians. Dietetics is so strongly complimented by other disciplines such as occupational therapy, speech pathology and psychology. In my role at Therapy Connect, I have had the opportunity to connect with a plethora of health professionals, which has contributed to my learning and development significantly.
- The lifelong learning opportunities from providing a professional development allowance to weekly multidisciplinary learnings, I am constantly learning and developing particularly in the neurodevelopment space. With these learning opportunities, I am able to provide a more holistic, evidence-based service to best support their nutrition goals.
