Recently, UAND’s Advocacy Pillar worked with Governor Herbert’s office to recognize the week of September 23-27, 2019 as Malnutrition Awareness Week in Utah which coincides with a national effort through the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN). Read the letter your UAND Advocacy Pillar sent to the governor’s office here and read the official declaration here.

Thank you to Governor Herbert for being the first governor in the country to officially declare Malnutrition Awareness Week in the state; to commit to educating healthcare professionals, patients, and caregivers on the consequences of malnutrition; and recognize the positive effect nutrition has on patient outcomes. Keep reading for more information and resources on this national effort!

Next week, join ASPEN for Malnutrition Awareness Week^™, September 23-27, 2019! Every September since 2012, ASPEN holds Malnutrition Awareness Week, their annual campaign to help everyone understand this often poorly diagnosed condition.

The goal of Malnutrition Awareness Week is to educate healthcare professionals to identify and treat for malnutrition earlier; educate consumers/patients to discuss their nutrition status with healthcare professionals; and to increase awareness of nutrition’s role on patient recovery. As dietitians, NDTRs, and nutrition professionals, we have an important role in the prevention and treatment of malnutrition in pediatric, adult, senior, and special populations.

Malnutrition Awareness Week is filled with valuable educational webinars and sharing of informational materials. There will be valuable educational webinars, on-demand videos, and support materials from clinical nutrition experts.

Continuing education credit is available for each webinar. ASPEN is accredited to provide medical, pharmacy, nursing and dietetic credits. CE credits are free to ASPEN members and members of ambassador organizations! The webinar schedule is below; register for each webinar here.

Programming for ASPEN Malnutrition Awareness Week 2019 focuses on optimizing nutritional interventions for at-risk and malnourished adult and pediatric populations. It covers malnutrition related to disease-, psychological-, and socioeconomical-associated states.

Join the conversation online by using the hashtag #MAW2019. For more information, visit www.nutritioncare.org/maw. We hope you can participate and help spread awareness here in Utah!

Resources for healthcare professionals from ASPEN and other organizations to help clinicians and administrators in the detection, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of disease-related malnutrition, can be found here. They include:

• On-demand short videos such as:
  • Malnutrition in Children with Chronic Disease: Congenital Heart Disease and Liver Disease (Part 1)
  • Neonatal Parenteral Nutrition and Alternative Lipids
  • Malnutrition Matters for Pediatric Patients
  • Metabolism Matters (Malnutrition – Adult Patients)
• Infographics
• Practice tools including:
  • Helping Assess and Diagnose Malnutrition in Your Adult Patients
  • Preterm and Neonatal Malnutrition Indicator Card
  • Improve Patient Outcomes: ASPEN’s Step-by-Step Guide to Addressing Malnutrition
  • Malnutrition Toolkit
• Advocacy for malnutrition prevention and treatment resources
• Resources for patients and their families (some in multiple languages!)

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is an official ambassador of ASPEN’s Malnutrition Awareness Week^™ and is also leading Spotlight on Malnutrition Month this September. A variety of resources to help raise awareness on this important issue are available here. They include:

• The Academy’s Spotlight on Malnutrition Social Media Toolkit
• Complementary webinars such as:
  • Building Healthier Futures: The First 1,000 Days
  • Strategies to Improve Care Transition to Reduce Malnutrition
  • Expanding Horizons: RDN Fellows Advancing Strategies to Address Global Malnutrition
• Peer-review literature on malnutrition
  • A malnutrition topic collection from the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
  • Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics September 2019 Supplement: Malnutrition Quality Improvement Initiative Yields Value for Interdisciplinary Patient Care and Clinical Nutrition Practice
  • Dietitians in Nutrition Support dietetics practice group literature review on malnutrition
• Access to previous FNCE® sessions (for past attendees)