HAN Week 2026

Home Artificial Nutrition (HAN) Awareness Week

Focus for 2026 - HAN. Seen. Unseen. Support it all.

Home Artificial Nutrition (HAN) Awareness Week is an annual opportunity to highlight the thousands of adults and children in the UK who rely on artificial nutrition at home. Whether through oral nutrition support (e.g. nutritional drinks), enteral nutrition (tube feeding) or parenteral nutrition (intravenous feeding), HAN helps people stay nourished and well enough to live their lives beyond hospital.

HAN is a life-saving, life-changing treatment, yet it remains largely unrecognised. People may not realise it is a treatment at all, and when they notice tubes or equipment, assumptions can be wrong. Many people only hear about HAN when they or someone they love needs it. This week aims to change that by raising awareness, challenging stigma and celebrating the resilience of the HAN community.

What is Home Artificial Nutrition?

Home Artificial Nutrition provides essential nutrition when eating and drinking normally is not possible or not safe. It includes:

Oral Nutrition Support (ONS) – nutritional drinks, powders or supplements used when a person can eat but cannot meet their needs through food alone. It may be used on its own or alongside other nutrition support.
Enteral Nutrition (EN) – liquid feed delivered through a tube into the stomach or small bowel (intestine).
Parenteral Nutrition (PN) – nutrition and fluids delivered directly into the bloodstream via a central venous catheter (parenteral support).

People may need HAN due to intestinal failure, Crohn’s disease, gastroparesis, cancer, severe malabsorption, surgical complications, neurological conditions or stroke, among others. For some, HAN is short term; for others, it may be longer term or lifelong.

What unites everyone on HAN is this: it is not a choice – it is a lifeline.

#HANWeek #Seen #Unseen #SupportItAll #HPS #HEN #ONS #SupportingHANWeek
Please include us in social posts @PINNTcharity

How can you get involved?

Share your story: Post on social media, talk with friends, or take part in a show-and-tell – anywhere you feel comfortable. Help people understand the parts of artificial nutrition they don’t see: the planning, the equipment and supplies, the realities (pros and cons), and the ways nutrition supports everyday life such as work, travel, managing condition(s), and time with family and friends. If you post on social platforms, tag @pinntcharity or let us know so we can share your post.
Featured PINNT member: Want to be featured during HAN Week? Send us a short-written piece or reel – we’d love to hear from people on feeding, carers, healthcare professionals and corporate partners. Email comms@pinnt.com.
Donate your social media profile photo: Send us a favourite photo and we’ll add a supportive HAN Week message for you (we’re happy to help, especially with recent platform changes). From 1 July, we’ll prepare your image and return it in time for HAN Week. Email your photo to comms@pinnt.com and tell us if it’s for Facebook, Instagram, or both.

Plus lots more to come...

What’s planned for HAN Week?

What PINNT’s planning to share:

A conversation with Nutricia. We’re delighted to be joined by Nutricia Homeward for a Q&A on what matters most to members, including recent changes and sustainability. This will include your questions that were submitted by the link we circulated.
A new resource: Watch this space!
HAN waste report update: Exploring clinical and non-clinical waste in home nutrition support - we’ll share an update on the 2025 follow-up report.
PINNT Virtual Connection Forum: This will be on Thursday, 6 August at 11am. Information will be emailed to you and posted on the closed PINNT Facebook group.
Photo montages: Help us create member photo montages.
People on feeding – email a photo of yourself or child (feeding tubes, line and equipment can be included if you so wish).
Carers/supporters – email us your photo for a separate montage but make it clear you’re a carer – a valuable part of HAN!

All photos to be emailed to comms@pinnt.com. We’ll feature as many as we can. Sending a photo confirms you consent to us using it on our website and social channels.

Plus more to be announced...

Who can get involved?

Everyone!

You may be a patient benefiting from it, a spouse/partner supporting someone receiving it, a healthcare professional providing care for someone, an individual who works in the nutrition industry, someone involved in the provision of nutrition solutions, equipment or services - you all have a part in the unique journey and a story to share!

Home artificial nutrition requires input from a wide range of people; each one vital to the production, monitoring, delivery of the nutrition solutions and services to people dependent on this life-saving nutrition.

We know it doesn't always go smoothly but if we are honest the provision of home artificial nutrition is one that should be celebrated ~ it's a lifeline to thousands of people.