Interest growing in flax flour program
Monday, March 15, 2005 - Natalie Miller
OMNI’s nutritional care co-ordinator is planning to roll out a program this year that will help keep residents regular naturally. A former nutritional care manager at Garden Terrace introduced home office to the idea of using flax flour instead of chemical laxatives to keep systems running smoothly.

Andrea Smith piloted the program at the Kanata long-term care home last spring. The results were “absolutely incredible,” says Aimee Fluke, nutritional care co-ordinator for all OMNI homes.

After meeting with Andrea and conducting research, Aimee is planning to expand the Natural Bowel Care program to the other 15 OMNI homes.

“Rolling out the Natural Bowel Care program is one of our nutritional care goals for 2005,” says Aimee.

“We want all of the homes to benefit from it as Garden Terrace has. As far as the trial at Garden Terrace, the results were absolutely incredible.”

A trial was conducted in May 2004 with residents in the special care unit on the first floor of the home. On the day the trial began, after receiving consent from residents’ families, nursing staff stopped administering pharmaceutical laxatives and the nutritional care department added two tablespoons of flax flour to residents’ diets daily. The flax seeds were ground and added to residents’ breakfast cereal, spread on toast with jam or blended into mashed potatoes or soup.

At the end of the month, staff had administered a total of eight laxatives compared to 564 in April.

“The benefits are undeniable,” says Aimee. “We definitely want all of our residents to have the opportunity to benefit from this. Constipation can be detrimental in so many ways.”

The program’s success at Garden Terrace relied on collaboration between the nursing and nutritional care departments, Andrea earlier told the OMNIway. Because of the education and teamwork involved, Aimee says the program will be rolled out slowly throughout OMNI.

Village Green and Almonte Country Haven have expressed keen interest in the program, Aimee says.

Using natural or holistic remedies is something “we’ve never really given…much thought,” says Aimee. “Anything that’s going to improve the residents’ quality of life we’re willing to consider.”

Flaxseed, aside from being rich in dietary fibre, contains omega-3 fat, which may protect against cancer and heart disease, according to the Flax Council of Canada, The flour also contains protein which aids in skin care management.

To read about Andrea’s pilot program click here