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Popular Nutrition Intervention Strategies

Sometimes it is necessary for an agency or an individual to step in and intervene nutritionally on behalf of a person or group of people. These interventions often offer life-saving care or services to people who need it. People vulnerable to nutritional issues may ask for the intervention, or they may need to be convinced to accept the help. Either way, nutrition intervention strategies must be tailored to the particular needs of the person or group involved.

  1. About Nutritional Intervention

    • Nutritional intervention refers to the practice of stepping in to provide nutritional support for individuals or groups of people in need. The strategies for these interventions vary according to the needs of the person or population receiving them. For instance, a teenage girl suffering from anorexia needs different strategies for nutritional intervention than an elderly person who has lost the ability to adequately feed herself, or a group of children in an economically suppressed area who are not fed enough at home.

    Eating Disorders

    • People who suffer from eating disorders typically either restrict eating to the point of malnourishment or binge on food and then purge it from their bodies. Individual education, group education and medical intervention are strategies used to help ensure these people receive the nutrition they need. Someone who is anorexic might receive individual therapy, join a group therapy setting or be placed in an inpatient medical setting until her nutritional needs are being met and her weight is stabilized. A bulimic person might be restrained from purging by being under supervision at all times in the beginning of treatment.

    Elderly and Disabled People

    • Some elderly people and those with developmental or physical disabilities sometimes become unable to provide for their own nutritional needs. These people may be unable to shop for groceries or cook, and they may have a diminished ability to understand their own needs in this area. Some popular nutritional interventions for this population include providing a meal service. Not only does this strategy ensure access to nutritious food on a regular basis, but the food is normally delivered by a person who can spend a few minutes with the individual being served to ensure that other nutritional needs are being met. For severe issues regarding nutrition in these populations, the people involved might need more dramatic intervention, including placement in a supervised living situation.

    Poor Populations

    • In some parts of the United States, the population of people under the poverty level is high enough to cause group-wide problems. For instance, elementary schools in these areas might have whole groups of students who do not get enough to eat on a daily basis. Some popular interventions for these groups include providing state-sponsored food programs, such as free lunch and breakfast to students from low-income families. Some schools also have programs in place that allow some students to discretely bring home easily prepared foods for evening and weekend meals, and to help feed non-school-aged family members such as parents and younger siblings.

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