About this guide
This guide has been written with help from people living with dementia, family carers, nurses and researchers. Coping with continence problems can be very hard and everyone’s needs are different. Many people have told us that they find these problems difficult to talk about and feel alone.
We don’t have all the answers, but we hope this guide will help.
The guide has lots of boxes like this one. Each box has a quote from someone who has taken part in our research. They provide useful tips and show a range of experiences (good and not so good).
How to use this guide
This guide has 14 sections. Each section gives:
- A short ‘key points’ box.
- Quotes from carers or health professionals.
- Detailed advice.
Everyone is different, some guidance will be useful for you and some won’t.
- You don’t need to read the whole guide.
- Choose which sections are helpful for you from the index.
- Click on the links to take you to sections that you think might be helpful.
There are details on how to get more help at the end of the guide.
Some people might find some of the topics upsetting.
If you need more help or are worried, contact your healthcare professional.
What do we mean by continence and toilet-use problems?
Continence problems = urine (pee) or faeces (poo) in the ‘wrong’ place. For example, when people can’t reach the toilet in time or don’t know that they need to use the toilet.
To help keep things simple, we have used the words ‘pee’ and ‘poo’ in this guide.
Toilet-use problems = difficulties using the toilet for example, not being able to remove clothes or wipe properly.