The role of nutrition professionals working in mental health settings - insights from a multi-professional and international world café

Abstract:

Background

Lifestyle interventions, particularly diet, are increasingly recognized as essential components of mental health care, with poor diet quality identified as a modifiable risk factor for mental health conditions. Despite growing evidence supporting nutrition's importance in mental health, the contribution of nutrition professionals varies widely internationally, with no standard occupational profile. This project aimed to: i) identify perceived roles of nutrition professionals in mental health settings, ii) identify nutrition-related roles handled by non-nutrition professionals, and iii) generate recommendations for integrating nutrition professionals into mental health care.

Methods

An international, inter-professional group employed the World Café method to explore these objectives. Using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), participants identified barriers and facilitators to implementing nutrition professional-led interventions across multiple levels. These insights informed best practice recommendations for integration.

Results

Twenty-seven participants identified 14 key tasks. Nutrition-related tasks included dietary assessment, intervention, nutrition support, and meal planning. Non-nutrition-related tasks covered monitoring psychological distress, inter-professional collaboration, organizational duties, education, research, and advocacy. Non-nutrition professionals often handle nutrition-related tasks such as dietary screening, assessment, intervention implementation, education, skill building, monitoring, and food service responsibilities. Twelve best practice recommendations were developed for integrating nutrition professionals into mental health care.

Conclusions

Findings highlight the need for tailored integration approaches that acknowledge diverse non-nutrition tasks nutrition professionals undertake and emphasize inter-professional collaboration, particularly with psychotherapists, nurses, psychiatrists, and physicians. Mental health professionals should be trained to recognize malnutrition and poor dietary habits in patients.