Katherine Wasson’s research while affiliated with Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust and other places

Food refusal poses difficulties for nurses and care staff and can place older patients with dementia at risk of undernutrition. The dangers of and reasons for food refusal in these patients are explored and the fundamental ethical and legal issues raised in caring for these patients are examined. Practical guidance and solutions are offered through dietetics and speech and language therapy with the aim of helping nurses and care staff, as well as professional carers in palliative care, and explore ways of critically examining and coping with these dilemmas.

Background and Context As human beings, we all have things we both need and want. As patients, we regularly present pro-fessionals with a plethora of needs and wants. One constant refrain about health care is that resources are limited. Within this context of resource allocation, health professionals must make difficult deci-sions about how to distinguish between and respond to human needs and wants. While working with a palliative care team in London, questions about whether or not health profes-sionals can and do make distinctions between human needs and wants were raised. This prompted research into the theory and practice of distinguishing needs from wants. One aim was to provide a more consistent means of weighing up and making decisions between needs and wants for profession-als. Such distinctions may also be helpful to Christians in the wider context of work and life. What do we mean by 'health'? Fundamental to all interactions within health care is an understanding of what we mean by health. There is a key distinction between the basis of health and the basis for health. The basis of health relates to the moral base for health and what makes health a value. The basis for health focuses on what is needed to bring about or produce this value of health, which may entail both curative and preventative interventions.