UK Malnutrition Awareness Week 2024
UK Malnutrition Awareness Week (UKMAW) 2024 is just around the corner, taking place between 11th and 17th November. Now in its seventh year, BAPEN is delighted to be partnering with the Malnutrition Task Force again to deliver a focused campaign to raise awareness of the prevalence, signs and risks of malnutrition and dehydration.
We encourage you to get involved with the campaign and help us spread the word about the importance of good nutrition amongst health and social care professionals, carers and the public. It is through collaborative efforts that we can continue to build momentum and share important resources more widely for integration into care pathways. Malnutrition is everyone’s business.
#UKMAW2024 is all about sharing best practice and insights – you are invited to promote your activities and join the conversations on social media. In particular, we’re calling on all health and social care professionals and care workers to get involved with #ChallengesTuesday on 12th November – an interactive day where you can share challenges and solutions for delivering nutritional care using our selfie board. The themes of the days of the campaign week are as follows, and more information can be found on our website about various ways to get involved.
Monday - Contextualising malnutrition and the importance of screening
Tuesday - Challenges Tuesday
Wednesday - Education
Thursday - Hydration
Friday - Take action against malnutrition!
Weekend - Highlights of the week.
The Malnutrition Action Group (MAG) is also hosting its annual malnutrition and nutritional screening survey throughout November. We invite all health and social care professionals and care workers to engage with the survey. This will help us to better understand the current prevalence of malnutrition risk for adults across all health and care settings in the UK and how this is being managed.
"People providing health and social care can play a critical role in identifying and managing malnutrition risk. By completing the screening survey this November, you will be contributing valuable data to help us build a clearer picture of malnutrition across the UK - Who is at risk? How is malnutrition being managed? What’s happening in your area? BAPEN relies on data like yours to help highlight the scale of malnutrition with this data adding strength to our campaign for better nutritional care. Your contribution to the survey really can make a difference to patient care." Dr Emily Walters, BAPEN’s Malnutrition Officer.
It’s quick and straight-forward to submit data to the survey using ‘MUST’. Contribute to the survey via the portal on the BAPEN website.
Let’s all remember to take the time to Ask, Look and Listen for signs of malnutrition.