Taking Stock: Incompetent at incontinence – why are we ignoring the needs of incontinence sufferers?

Benedicte Hafskjold; Biserka Pop-Stefanija; Chelsea Giles-Hansen; Eric Weerts; Erin Flynn; Jane Wilbur; Kate Brogan; Kweku Ackom; Michelle Farrington; Minja Peuschel; Nicole Klaesener-Metzner; Ricardo Pla Cordero; Sue Cavill; Sarah House

doi:10.3362/1756-3488.2016.018

Taking Stock: Incompetent at incontinence – why are we ignoring the needs of incontinence sufferers?

How would you cope if you had no control over how you urinated or defecated and regularly or constantly leaked urine or faeces? How would this make you feel? How would you deal with the smell, with the indignity? What if you were a young teenager, traumatized by very stressful events and returned to bed-wetting as a result? And what would you do if you didn’t have the money to buy spare underwear or incontinence protection products or those are simply not available to you? Could you manage if you were suddenly displaced in an emergency and did not have access to a toilet, shower or bathing facilities, or your usual materials and coping mechanisms? What if you lived in a camp and your toilet or bathing shelter was a 5 minute walk away and had a long line in front of it? Would you be able to stand in line at food distribution or water collection points, go to school, or look for or undertake work?

Giles-Hansen, C. (2015) Hygiene needs of Incontinence Sufferers: How Can Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Actors Better Address the Needs of Vulnerable People Suffering from Urine and/or Faecal Incontinence in Low and Middle Income Countries [online], WaterAid/SHARE Research Consortium <www.communityledtotalsanitation.org/resource/hygiene-needs-incontinence-sufferers> [accessed 18 April 2016].

House, S., Mahon, T. and Cavill, S. (2012) Menstrual Hygiene Matters: A Resource for Improving Menstrual Hygiene around the World [online], WaterAid/SHARE, co-published by 18 organizations <www.wateraid.org/mhm> [accessed 18 April 2016].

Jones, H. and Reed, R.A. (2005) Water and Sanitation for Disabled People and Other Vulnerable Groups: Designing Services to Improve Accessibility [online], Loughborough, UK: WEDC, Loughborough University <https://wedc-knowledge.lboro.ac.uk/details.html?id=16357> [accessed 23 April 2016].

Jones, H.E. and Wilbur, J. (2014) Compendium of Accessible WASH Technologies [online], WEDC, WaterAid, SHARE <www.wateraid.org/what-we-do/our-approach/research-and-publications/view-publication?id=aff6d098-00f2-42e5-b9a0-22ec2b264a5e> [accessed 18 April 2016].

Oxfam GB (2007) Excreta disposal for physically vulnerable people in emergencies [online], Technical Brief <http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/excreta-disposal-for-physically-vulnerable-people-in-emergencies-126706> [accessed 18 April 2016].

Save the Children (2016) Childhood under siege: living and dying in besieged areas of Syria [pdf], <www.savethechildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/images/Childhood_Under_Siege.PDF> [accessed 23 April 2016].

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) (2015) Sustainable Development Goals [online] <https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300> [accessed 18 April 2016].

USAID, Plan International, UWASANET, Ministry of Health, Republic of Uganda (2008) Hygiene Improvement Project: Uganda HIV and WASH integration kit [online], <www.hip.fhi360.org/page/4489.html> [accessed 18 April 2016].

Venema, V. (2015) ‘The unlikely sanitary pad missionary’, BBC News [online], 3 December <www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34925238> [accessed 18 April 2016].

White, G. (2009) Identification of exemplary European practices reducing incidence of secondary disabilities in people with disabilities [pdf], Lawrence, KS: The Research and Training Center on Independent Living, The University of Kansas <http://rtcil.org/sites/rtcil.drupal.ku.edu/files/images/galleries/Exemplary%20European%20Practices.pdf> [accessed 23 April 2016].

Wilbur, J., Jones, H., Gosling, L., Groce N. and Challenger, E. (2013) Undoing inequity: inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene programmes that deliver for all in Uganda and Zambia [pdf], 36th WEDC International Conference, Nakuru, Kenya <http://wedc.lboro.ac.uk/resources/conference/36/Wilbur-1803.pdf> [accessed 18 April 2016].

Continence Foundation of Australia <www.continence.org.au/pages/what-is-incontinence.html> [accessed 18 April 2016].

International Incontinence Society <www.continenceproductadvisor.org/reference/glossary> [accessed 18 April 2016].

The Rights to Water and Sanitation <www.righttowater.info/> [accessed 15 March 2016].