National Hydration Association

The National Hydration Association (NHA) was first established in 2015 and Naomi Campbell became Chair in October 2016.

On September 17th 2018, she inspired a ‘Hydration – Call for Action’, which was the first national event to focus on the challenges and complexities of preventing ‘avoidable’ dehydration in elderly care, and was delighted to receive well wishes and a message of ‘Good Luck’ from  Sir Robert Francis QC (Francis Report 2013).

The Hydrant – solving a drinking problem, watch our 40-second animation
Hydration Health Summit - 14th November
Book now!
Enhancing knowledge and understanding of hydration in health and social care

Hear from internationally renowned experts on the importance and challenges of maintaining health and wellbeing through good hydration, and innovations currently being tested across England.

Free to attend, the event takes place on Thursday, 14 November between 9:00 am and 16:45 pm.

Hydrate in Care Homes Project

Kent Surrey Sussex Academic Health Science Network Hydrate in Care Homes Project: April - October 2016

This project aimed to reduce illness and unnecessary hospital attendance for care home residents through improving hydration awareness and practices among care home staff.  89 care homes completed the project. Significant reductions in admissions were achieved which translated into cost savings of £202,531 (18% year on year reduction) 564 potential bed days were saved.

The associated evaluation of the Simple Measures™ Reliance On a Carer to Drink (ROC to Drink) dehydration risk assessment tool and care plan summary produced positive user feedback  with ROC homes having greater reductions in UTI and falls admissions compared with other homes.

Associated resources as follows:

For a full copy of the toolkit, email Gill Potts (gill.potts1@nhs.net)

Think Kidneys AKI / Hydration information for Care Homes

Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is common, serious and harmful. The causes of AKI are many and varied and occur most often in people living with long term conditions, although it can affect anyone. It can occur as a result of an infection causing stress on the kidneys, dehydration reducing the flow of blood to the kidneys or the altered effect of medication caused by illness, surgical or radiological procedures.

The RA Think Kidneys team have created a learning guide for people who work in care homes (both nursing and residential homes) and it consists of activities to help in the understanding of what acute kidney injury is, and what you can do to help prevent it. The guide has been designed for nurses and care home managers to learn more about AKI, and to enable them to share this learning with care home support workers, care home residents and their families. The guide can be used to support the hydration policy.

The guide and other useful resources can be found here.

These resources are for the general public, HCPs - Nurses, Carers, Medics, Therapists, Mouth Care, Pharmacists, Paramedics, Researchers, Commissioners and Students

 NAH green logo
Update: October 2022
  • Since the last update, the NHA (National Hydration Association) has elected a new chair, Charlotte Trumper. 
  • After been appointed as Chair there have been some changes made. Firstly, the NHNhas now been renamed National Hydration Association (NHA) this change was agreed by members of the association who attended the general meeting on the 21st of July 2022.
  • There is a new logo as seen above on this page. This was designed by D. R Design
  • There is a poster which was also designed by D.R. Design to highlight the journey to dehydration. This can be printed for free and used in clinical areas. Please see below.
On-going Projects
  • The NHA is collaborating with the AKI (ACUTE KIDNEY INJURY) Significant Interest group (SIG) hosted by the association of nephrology nurses develop a set of national standards for fluid monitoring and fluid balance management. 
  • NHA’s first strategy is currently being developed
  • Watch this space for a national campaign which will be starting soon!
Vacancies
  • The NHA has vacancies for board members to help govern the NHA. Contact Charlotte Trumper on hydrationnetuk@outlook.com for details

To become a member of the NHA please contact Charlotte on the above email address. All health and social care staff are welcome. Membership is currently free. With membership there will be access to education packages and tools on how to improve hydrations for all patients within all care settings. 

Instagram: thehydronetuk Twitter: @thehydronetuk  Email: hydrationnetuk@outlook.com