What is gastrostomy care?
Gastrostomy care helps people with a feeding tube to live independently and confidently.
Gastrostomy is a term used to describe a surgical opening made directly into the stomach. This artificial opening is introduced to help people who experience difficulty swallowing food and liquids. A discreet plastic peg (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy) tube or button directly inserted into the opening allows for food and liquids, as well as medicines, to enter the stomach.
With gastrostomy care at home, an expert carer will help you to manage and clean your feeding tube, prepare meals, help with feeding and assist with matters of personal hygiene.
What does our gastrostomy care involve?
We take a holistic approach to our gastrostomy care, which means our focus is on supporting your physical and emotional well-being in the short and long term.
As well as covering the medical aspects of gastrostomy care, our services also cover the important element of companionship. When our experienced carers arrive to provide PEG feeding at home for customers, they’re there to offer their help and support. Enthusiastic and friendly, our carers are never too busy for a quick chat and are happy to assist you to be comfortable in your own home.
Help with feeding
We can help prepare and administer food and fluid through daily feeding tube care, taking dietary requirements into account
Managing your feeding tube
As well as helping with feeding, your carer can also assist with cleaning, flushing and connecting your feeding tube
Personal care
Your carer can help keep the skin around the tube clean and healthy, as well as assisting with toileting, bathing and dressing
Support around the home
If you’d benefit from having an extra pair of hands to help with the chores, your carer will always be happy to assist
Companionship
Enthusiastic and friendly, our carers are never too busy for a quick chat and are always there to offer emotional support
Medication support
All of our carers are expertly trained to assist with prescriptions, including helping you to organise and administer your medication
Helping you to live a healthy and independent life
We take great pride in offering gastrostomy care to people within their own homes
At Helping Hands, we believe that home is the best place to receive care and continue leading a healthy, happy and independent life. Our services are led by our team of clinical nurses, who are enthusiastic about the people they provide gastrostomy care and peg-feeding support to. Combined with the links we hold with hospitals and other health organisations, this allows us to deliver the best level of feeding care possible.
Regimes can be continuous or bolus of all nutritional intake, and are always tailored to your personal needs and preferences. Some of the many benefits of receiving gastrostomy care at home are:
Enjoy an independent life
Having the support of a carer in your home can help you to live life more independently and on your own terms, knowing that you’ve got
Keep up your routines and hobbies
Whether you’re a keen gardener, part of a book club or just enjoy seeing friends for a cuppa, you’ll be able to keep to all your normal routines
Maintain your well-being
Having a carer can provide immense physical and emotional health benefits, such as added confidence, conserving your energy and more
Fully trained gastrostomy carers
When you opt for PEG tube feeding delivered by a carer employed by Helping Hands, it’s designed to cater to you and you alone. Our expert nursing teams recognise that PEG care circumstances vary from person-to-person. We take into account your requirements to ensure you receive the levels of gastrostomy tube feeding care you need.
All our gastrostomy tube care services are delivered by carers who are fully trained in personal care routines. We put all of our carers through significant selection procedures before inviting them to join our team. Our customers love their Helping Hands carers because they are:
Expertly trained and fully vetted
Every carer receives our industry-renowned training which equips them to provide expert peg-gastrostomy care, and all of them are DBS checked
Kind and compassionate
At Helping Hands, we have a very specific recruitment process which means we only hire the most kind, empathetic carers to our teams
Directly employed by us
We directly employ all of our carers, so we take full responsibility for managing their workload, maintaining their wellbeing and paying them
A fully regulated home care provider
Here at Helping Hands, our service is regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW)
This means we need to consistently meet high standards and are monitored by our regulators.
Why is being a regulated care provider important?
Independent inspections of our service, giving you peace of mind
Fully vetted, high-quality carers
Guaranteed training and development for our staff
How to arrange peg-gastrostomy care
Arranging dedicated home care has never been simpler. Call our team today to get the ball rolling on your care journey with Helping Hands.
Speak to our team
Our friendly, knowledgeable team can answer your questions and talk you through your options. We are available 7 days a week.
Book a free care assessment
Your local Helping Hands care manager will visit you to understand your needs and preferences and discuss how we can help. We can visit you at home, in hospital or even a care home to carry out the care assessment.
Confirm your care package
We create a tailored care plan for you to review. Once you’ve agreed the plan, we can organise care in as little as 24 hours.