1. Why do some people living with dementia have problems using the toilet?
Key points
There are many stages involved in successfully going to the toilet. You need to:
- Know that you need to pee or poo.
- Know where the toilet is.
- ‘Hold on’ until you reach the toilet.
- Know how to use the toilet when you get there. People living with dementia (and other people) can have problems with any of these steps.
Around one in ten people live with incontinence. This means that they can’t always reach the toilet to pee or poo when they want to. Lots of physical problems can lead to incontinence, for example weak pelvic floor muscles, not being able to walk to the toilet or illness. Sometimes this can be treated, but sometimes not.
People living with dementia can have any of the physical problems, but they can also have memory and thinking difficulties that make incontinence more common and more difficult to manage. For example, the person might have problems:
- recognising signals from their body until it is too late.
- remembering how to get to the toilet or how to use it (for example, when to flush the toilet or how to remove clothes).
- managing leakage (for example, using pads).
These problems can be upsetting for everyone involved. Carers have said that it’s important (but sometimes hard) to remember that it is dementia and not the person causing this problem.
“It always seemed to happen when I’d just got him clean. I said to him, ‘I don’t know father, it always seems to happen when I’ve just cleaned everything’. ‘I know it’s amazing, isn’t it’, he said. I just went ‘Arrggh’. And I thought it’s not his fault, it’s the dementia speaking.”
Son
If the person you care for has new continence problems, speak to your healthcare professional. They can check for any problems such as infection or constipation that can be treated.
“I said, ‘Do you not get the sensation you need to go to the toilet?’ He said ‘No’. He said sometimes he does, but he can’t get there quick enough.”
Wife