Nutrition and Dietetics: Mornington Island Project

The project is a community and primary health care quality improvement initiative, aimed at improving the continuity of care by existing acute, community health and visiting health services, by coordinating health services to be more responsive to the health needs of patients.

It also aims to reduce hospital admissions/readmissions, incomplete treatments, discharge against medical advice, and failure to attend rates for specialist medical appointments. The Mornington Island dietitian works on the island each week and provides dietetic services on a needs basis. These services include reviewing patients who have received dietetic services in Mount Isa, palliative care or “hospital in the home”, and facilitating diabetes awareness and education groups.

Dietary treatments include:

• Malnutrition or at risk of malnutrition: unintentional weight loss, poor oral intake, feeding difficulties, hypermetabolic, long-term texture/fluid modified diet, special diet restrictions
• Enteral or parenteral feeding
• Unstable or newly diagnosed diabetes, including gestational diabetes
• Altered gut function or gastric surgery
• Dietary management of inflammatory bowel disease (crohns’ or ulcerative colitis), diverticular disease, pancreatitis, chronic liver disease
• Allergies or intolerances requiring dietary intervention
• Micronutrient deficiency requiring dietary intervention