Celebrating Dietitians Week 2026

Dietitians Week 2026 celebrates the vocation, work, impact, and people of dietetics, with daily themes highlighting the profession’s purpose and influence.

Organised by the British Dietetic Association (BDA), it ran from Monday 1 – Friday 5 June and is a celebration of dietitians and their contributions to health and nutrition. The overarching theme emphasises the importance, impact, and dedication of dietitians, encouraging professionals to share their experiences, achievements, and the value of their work.

This Dietitians Week, in its special 90th year, we celebrated what it means to be a part of this profession with purpose and honour the impact our dietitians have every day.

Each day of Dietitians Week had a specific theme to guide activities and engagement:

Monday – Our Vocation:

“Hi my name is Harry and I’m a final year MSc Dietetics student at LBU. I chose dietetics because I’ve always been fascinated by how nutrition supports recovery and wellbeing. I love how diverse the field is and that I’m constantly learning and finding new passions within it!”

Harry Matthews
Student dietitian

“For me, becoming a dietitian is about helping people build healthier lives and better relationships with nutrition. As a 2nd year dietitian apprentice,  I am loving the journey so far and learning everyday!”

Lucy Gilmore
Dietetic apprentice

“I have done quite a wide variety of jobs in my career to date – working as a community dietitian as a public health specialist, in community research for a charity and academic research at The University of Leeds.  All these opportunities stemmed from my qualifications and experience in dietetics.

“After a number of years not working in the profession I completed a return to practice in 2018 and am really glad that I did. I now work as a specialist dietitian in learning disability services – not something that I ever imagined myself doing but a role that I find rewarding. I like working with people, their care system and the LD multi-disciplinary team to get the best outcome we can – in some often very challenging situations.

“It’s not always easy work but when we get to a better place for people, their families and their carers there can be a huge sense of satisfaction. I now work in an amazing team of professionals – therapy assistants, nurses, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nursing associates, psychiatrists and psychologists (apologies if I’ve missed anyone out) and I learn so much from my team both professionally and personally. 

“I like to think that we all contribute to reducing some of the stark inequalities in health and access to healthcare that are still faced by too many people with a learning disability. That is my why…”

Laura Brown, dietitian
Kirklees Learning Disabilities Team

Tuesday – Our Work:

Dietetic roles in our Trust are varied: inpatients and community, physical and mental health, from cradle to grave.  We have specialists in paediatrics, mental health, weight management, rehabilitation, catering, diabetes, older people, enteral nutrition, eating disorders, forensics, learning disabilities, nutrition support, specialist palliative care.

We work alongside other members of multidisciplinary teams to provide person centred nutritional care.

In addition to delivering individual patient care, we are proudly involved in other projects such as careers and inspiring the future workforce, food waste and catering initiatives, developing our group offers for patients, research, audit, student training and developing clinical pathways, resources and policies.

“In palliative care, the role of the specialist dietitian is work as part of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) to help to promote a person’s quality of life, providing tailored individual dietetic advice on how to manage a range of nutritional symptoms which can include nausea, vomiting, swallowing problems, taste changes, side effects of medications, bowel disturbances and large changes in appetite and food preferences.

“A consultation with a palliative care dietitian will however often encompass more than advice about what food and drinks to choose, with a strong emphasis being placed on working with and alongside loved ones, friends and carers, to provide them with practical tips and reassurance on how to support a person who may be approaching the end of their lives, which can understandably be a very scary and highly emotional time for all of those involved.”

Helen Doyle

Macmillan Specialist Dietitian in Palliative Care

Wednesday – Our Celebration:

Our Trust dietitians have lots to celebrate, having recently been successful in receiving nominations and winning in individual and team categories at the Trust Excellence Awards.

Sarah has transformed dietetic services in just a year. Her kindness and leadership shine through in every decision, always putting patients first. She’s improved pathways, strengthened policies, and ensured mental health patients receive safe, compassionate nutrition support.

This project, including our Catering Dietitian, tackled food waste by tracking portions served, unserved and wasted over 10 months, leading to major improvements. With meal ordering now personalised and waste converted to green energy, food waste fell from 2.515 tonnes to 1.325 tonnes — a 47% reduction.

The frailty clinic is a multidisciplinary team (including Dietetics) that supports people with moderate–severe frailty through proactive, personalised care that prevents crises and avoids hospital admissions. With strong early ROI (£10.47 saved per £1), an expanded phase is now planned, rotating monthly across neighbourhoods.

Since joining the team in September 2025, Aimee has shown resilience and unwavering care for her service users. She has helped several service users who have struggled with significant weight loss either because of mental health or other conditions. Aimee has tirelessly sought the correct support and most appropriate service for her patients, going the extra mile. This included accompanying a service user with severe anxiety and fear of hospitals to a hospital appointment so that they were able to receive the appropriate tests. Aimee is respectful of her colleagues, professional in her interactions, and growing in her abilities and confidence as a learning disabilities dietitian.

Thursday – Our Impact:

Given the varied nature of our roles, our impact can be felt and seen in different ways:

• Improvement in symptoms e.g. in gastro related conditions such as constipation and Irritable Bowel Syndrome

• Intentional weight changes to achieve a healthy weight

• Meeting estimated nutritional requirements: energy, protein, vitamins and minerals

• Developing positive relationships with food

• Improved biochemical markers e.g. cholesterol, iron levels, blood glucose levels

• Improved quality of life, including symptom management and comfort at the end of life

In addition to clinical settings, our impact includes:

• Multidisciplinary team working

• Audit and research

• Public health initiatives

• Providing positive student training and learning experiences

• Catering, food service and allergy awareness

• Recruitment and retention

• Service development and quality improvement

• Patient safety

Friday – Our People:

Thank you to all our dietitians for all your hard work, contributions and the difference you make to our people, patients and families every single day!