MEALTIME MANUAL FOR THE AGED AND HANDICAPPED

Abstract

This manual is the outgrowth of research carried out over a two-year period by an interdisciplinary team of workers at the Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University Medical Center. It was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Campbell Soup Fund to study the problems encountered by handicapped and elderly persons in the preparation of meals. Many of the subjects participating in the study were handicapped in various ways, thereby giving research personnel the opportunity to work out specific techniques in approaching a problem. The information is presented in a stepwise, succinct way and is accompanied by excellent close-up photographs illustrating the use of a piece of equipment or demonstrating a technique of operation. Excellent instructions are provided for making or modifying some of the equipment. A helpful list of sources for obtaining kitchen equipment and tools is also given. Emphasis has been placed on the use of small electrical appliances due to their ease in ascessibility, variability, and adaptability to a kitchen used by a handicapped person. Helpful suggestions are given on the selection of appliances, their placement and use in a kitchen, storage of food, and safety in the kitchen. Meal planning and selected recipes are presented, which makes the book attractive to the elderly, handicapped person who wishes to take shortcuts and to simplify food preparation while still keeping meals nutritious and attractive. The book would be an asset to the library of any public health department; it would be useful to the professional worker who comes in contact with elderly or handicapped persons, and to the homemaker. JANE WENTWORTH