Supporting safe eating and drinking

Nutrition and dysphagia care

Supporting people with complex eating, drinking, swallowing, nutrition, and hydration needs.

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Who we support

Our nurse-led care homes support adults who require complex nutrition and hydration care, often arising from neurological conditions, brain injuries, dementia, physical disabilities, respiratory conditions, and other progressive or complex conditions.

Depending on individual needs, this can include people who:

Need support to eat and drink

Including prompting, supervision, physical assistance, adapted equipment, or additional time at mealtimes.

Need nutrition and hydration monitoring

Including people at risk of malnutrition, dehydration, weight changes, or other changes in nutritional health.

Require enteral feeding

Including PEG, PEJ, PEG-J, button gastrostomy, NG, or NJ feeding, depending on individual needs and home capability.

Have dysphagia or aspiration risks

Including swallowing difficulties, choking or aspiration risks, and prescribed texture-modified food or thickened fluids.

Smiling person with short purple and pink hair, wearing a neck brace and green knitted jumper, seated in a grey armchair.

When I moved here, I was fed through a PEG.

With support from the team, I’m now eating a normal diet. It’s changed my life!

I can go for meals with friends and celebrate birthdays with my family without feeling left out.”

Jess

Resident, Woolston House

Our approach to nutrition and dysphagia care

Food and drink are about much more than meeting a clinical need. They’re also an important part of enjoyment, independence, culture, identity, relationships, and everyday life.

Our approach balances safe clinical care with each person’s preferences, choices, and quality of life.

Person-centred care

Understanding each person’s preferences, routines, culture, abilities, and what matters to them around food and drink.

Individual clinical plans

Following prescribed diets, fluids, feeding regimes, and swallowing recommendations safely and consistently.

Proactive monitoring

Recognising changes in intake, weight, hydration, swallowing, or health and responding early.

Multidisciplinary approach

Working with speech and language therapists, dietitians, GPs, and other professionals involved in the person’s care.

Promoting independence

Supporting people to eat, drink, communicate choices, and take part in mealtimes as independently as possible.

Meaningful mealtimes

Supporting people to enjoy food, drink, company, routines, and occasions that matter to them.

For someone with dysphagia, eating and drinking can carry additional risks, but safe support shouldn’t mean turning every mealtime into a clinical task.

Depending on individual needs, support can include:

  • appropriate positioning
  • texture-modified food and thickened fluids
  • adapted utensils and equipment
  • prompting, supervision, or physical assistance
  • appropriate pacing and additional time
  • individual choking and aspiration precautions.

Our teams get to know how each person eats and drinks and recognise changes that may need further assessment.

Our nurse-led teams can support people who receive some or all of their nutrition, hydration, or medication through an enteral feeding tube.

Depending on individual needs and home capability, this can include PEG, PEJ, PEG-J, button gastrostomy, NG, and NJ feeding.

Care can include prescribed feeds and fluids, pump or bolus feeding, flushing, medication administration where prescribed, tube and site care, and monitoring feed tolerance.

Nutrition and hydration needs can change, so recognising small changes early is an important part of our care.

Depending on assessed needs, our teams monitor areas such as:

  • food and fluid intake
  • weight and nutritional risk
  • hydration
  • swallowing
  • feed tolerance
  • changes in health or behaviour.

This helps teams respond early, review care, and involve the relevant healthcare professionals when needed.

Find the right complex care

Our Referrals Team can help find an Exemplar Health Care home with the right nursing and clinical capability for someone with complex nutrition, hydration, or swallowing needs.

Make a referral
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