Dietitian Survey by Debbie Martin, April 21, 2010

This small survey was done on the request of the Better Beginnings Steering Committee due to financial needs for the program. All 25 projects in AB were contacted and below were the questions and answers.

Questions asked:
1. Does a dietitian play a role in your project
2. If yes what is the role of the dietitian
3. Do you pay for this service or is it in kind

Answers;
1. 21 projects stated there is a dietitian that they have assess to (at some level)
• 2 projects did not have access but stated they would like to
• 5 projects stated they would like more access (it might be a higher number as I did not ask this specific question)
2. Roles
• Prenatal Nutrition Assessment, counselling & follow up (telephone or 1 on 1) – these referrals are the biggest role for the dietitian
• Project staff - in-service / training / updates /consultant
• Resource development
- education material
- client resources
- teaching modules
• Class facilitator
- cooking circles
- introduction to baby food
- drop in groups
- prenatal / postnatal classes
- grocery shopping
- container gardener
• Attend CPNP meetings (advisory, steering etc)
• Program Coordinator
• Telephone support
• Evaluating classes
3. Hours paid ranged from 35 min to 28 hours weekly for 7 projects. Eighteen projects had dietitian services provided in-kind from AHS. I did not specifically ask how many in-kind hours each project was provided.