ADP daily living component activity 2 – taking nutrition

Introduction

This chapter provides information on activity 2 of the daily living component of Adult Disability Payment (ADP).

This chapter should be read and applied in line with:

• the ‘overview of decision making’ chapter (link to overview of decision making) and
• the ‘daily living component introduction’ chapter (link to daily living component introduction)

Daily living component activity 2 considers an individual’s ability to be nourished either by:

• cutting food into pieces, conveying food and drink to the mouth, then chewing and/or swallowing, or;
• through the use of therapeutic sources

Meaning of ‘taking nutrition’

The defined term ‘taking nutrition’ refers solely to the act of eating and drinking.

The quality of what’s being consumed is not relevant, as long as it's capable of providing nourishment.

If what’s consumed is not considered food or drink

Instances where what’s being consumed is so beyond any reasonable view of what constitutes food or drink that it does not amount to ‘taking nutrition’ are possible, but will be very rare.

For example, an individual living with symptoms of a medical condition such as Binge Eating Disorder or Pica.  These conditions would be relevant to this activity if:

• they cause a client to be unable to stop themselves from eating things that are not safe for people to consume or 
• they are unable to stop themselves eating to excess

This should be distinguished from a client choosing to:

• eat an unhealthy or restricted diet,
• eat to excess, or
• avoid certain foods due to dietary requirements

Therapeutic sources

A therapeutic source means parenteral or enteral tube feeding using a device, such as a delivery system or feed pump.

Therapeutic sources may include but are not limited to:

• gastro-nasal feeding tubes
• PEG feeding tube 

People making choices about their diet do not usually score

If for any reason an individual elects to have a bad or restricted diet, makes dietary choices or chooses to avoid certain foods as part of dietary requirements, they are nevertheless ‘taking nutrition’ to an acceptable standard and will usually not score under daily living component activity 2.

What activity 2 does not cover

Daily living component activity 2 does not consider:

• individual preference as to how many meals a day to eat
• an individual’s ability to cook food as this is considered in daily living component activity 1 
• the type of food to be cut up, for example tough meats, or the need to cut up uncooked food (again this would be considered in activity 1). If this is the only type of food the individual has difficulty cutting they would be considered able to cut up food for this activity.
• restricting food intake, due to personal preference

Daily living component activity 2 descriptors

The daily living component activity 2 descriptors describe 6 levels of functional ability to complete the activity.

1. Can take nutrition unaided.
2. Needs:

• to use an aid or appliance to be able to take nutrition; or
• supervision to be able to take nutrition; or
• assistance to be able to cut up food

3. Needs a therapeutic source (see definition above) to be able to take nutrition.
4. Needs prompting to be able to take nutrition.
5. Needs assistance to be able to manage a therapeutic source (see definition above) to take nutrition.
6. Cannot convey food and drink to their mouth and needs another person to do so. (ADP regs, Schedule 1 Part 2 -  Daily Living Activities, Activity (2))

It’s important to note that when considering what the client ‘needs’ as used in the descriptors, consideration should be given to what the client may reasonably require even although they may not be receiving it.