The Thickened Liquid Challenge – #ThickenedLiquidChallenge

Our hospice and palliative care team decided this weekend to do the “Thickened Liquid Challenge.”  This is a simple challenge that is mainly focused on putting ourselves in the shoes of our patients who are prescribed thickened liquids (or perhaps I should say drink from their cups).

The rules are simple:

• 12 Hour Challenge: All fluids must be thickened to “honey consistency” using a beverage thickener for a 12 hour contiguous period. Food does not have to be thickened.
• Mini-challenge: drink an 8 ounce drink thickened to honey consistency (coffee, wine, juice, water, or any drink of your choice)
• Videotape yourself and include an announcement that you accept the challenge
• If you fail the challenge you must donate $20 to a geriatrics or palliative care charity of your choice (see notes below for some suggestions)
• At the end of your challenge, nominate a minimum of three other people/teams to participate in the challenge.
• When posting the challenge online, please use the hashtag #thickenedliquidchallenge

We’ll spend some time on the next post about the data behind thickened liquids for individuals with dementia and other diseases where swallowing is an issue (spoiler alert: it’s not good, despite the fact that 8% of patients in skilled nursing facilities are taking thickened liquids).

by: Eric Widera (@ewidera)‬

Note: here are some good hospice, palliative care, and geriatrics charities to consider:

Geriatrics: 

• Health in Aging Foundation (the official foundation of AGS)  
• Gerontological Society of America 
• American Society of Consultant Pharmacists 

Hospice and Palliative Care: 

• AAHPM Shaping the Future Campaign  
• Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network (SWHPN)  
• Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA)  
• National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) 

Other notable organizations:

• The National Foundation of Swallowing Disorders

12 Hour Challenges Accepted (if you do a 12 hour challenge, we’ll post it on GeriPal even if you don’t finish):

Note: This post is part of the series on the #ThickenedLiquidChallenge.  To watch the videos of this challenge check out the videos on YouTube:

• The American Geriatrics Society
• The Hospice and Palliative Care Team taking the challenge
• Alex Smith taking the challenge
• Eric Widera taking the challenge
• Dawn Maxey taking the challenge
• Ken Covinsky taking the challenge
• Allen Tong taking the challenge
• Mike Steinman taking the challenge
• Nancy Lundebjerg taking the challenge
• AAHPM staff taking taking the challenge
• San Francisco VA ACE team taking the challenge
• Christian Sinclair from Pallimed taking the challenge
• Suzanne Gordon taking the challenge
• Home Base Primary Care taking the challenge
• UCSF Interprofessional Geriatrics and Palliative Care Elective taking the challenge
• Gigi Trabant taking the challenge
• SFVA iPACT team taking the challenge
• Holly Yang from Pallimed taking the challenge
• Paul Tatum and David Oliver taking the challenge
• Qualms Health taking the challenge