Good bowel health plays a vital role in your overall wellbeing, not just physically, but emotionally and socially too. For many people with disability or neurological conditions, managing bowel function can be complex and unpredictable.
What is Complex Bowel Care?
Complex bowel care refers to specialised support for people who need more than standard disability personal care to manage bowel function safely and with dignity.
It is tailored to individual needs, and can include assistance with regular routines, monitoring, and interventions that help prevent complications like severe constipation or faecal incontinence.
People who may need this level of support include those with:
- Spinal cord injury
- Neurological conditions (e.g. stroke or cerebral palsy)
- Conditions affecting nerve or muscle control
- Persistent bowel dysfunction
- Other complex health needs
These supports help ensure bowel care is effective, comfortable, and aligns with a person’s lifestyle and routines.
Why Complex Bowel Care Matters
When your bowel care isn’t well-managed, it can affect your quality of life in many ways, from physical discomfort to embarrassment and social withdrawal. It can affect your ability to leave your home so you can engage in daily life and increase your risk of preventable hospitalisation. Good bowel management helps:
- Maintain regular and predictable bowel emptying
- Prevent pain, impaction and incontinence
- Support comfort, dignity and confidence
- Reduce the risk of associated health issues
Clinical guidance can provide bowel care advice that is tailored to your unique preferences, to help to reduce the risk of infection, maintain skin integrity and promote healthy bowel movements.
Complex Bowel Care Support
Trained Support Workers can work with you and your treating health professionals to:
- Understand your individual bowel management plan
- Monitor bowel habits, patterns and changes
- Assist with bowel routines in line with your plan
- Support prescribed interventions, such as colostomy care, medication administration (e.g. an enema or suppository) or other techniques, as directed by your health team
- Help maintain hygiene and comfort throughout the process
Personalised, Safe Support You Can Trust
Complex bowel care can feel deeply personal and at times overwhelming, especially if routines have changed or health needs have shifted. Support Workers can give you peace of mind by:
- Being competent and trained in complex bowel procedures
- Following your bowel management plan carefully
- Communicating with your health professionals (with your consent)
- Responding to changes in bowel function or health needs swiftly and respectfully
This complex care support not only helps manage your physical health, but also protects your confidence, independence and dignity.
Everyone deserves to feel safe, comfortable and in control of their bowel care, and complex support can make that possible when it’s tailored to you.
Learn more
If you’d like to learn more about our how you could employ Support Workers that you trust to support you with your complex bowel care , our team is here to help and ready to guide you through every step.
Please reach out to the Living My Way team today. You can call us on (02) 8525 4000, email us via operations@lmwl.org.au or complete our online enquiry form.
Eligibility criteria apply for this service. Actual service will depend on your needs.