Continence Conversations
Our work with carers of people living with dementia has shown that these are common topics that carers want to discuss with healthcare professionals.
- Why are people living with dementia at higher risk of continence problems?
- Things that might help
- Continence products
- Communication
- Managing continence at night
All of these topics (and many more) are covered in the carers section of the DemCon website.
Ideas on opening the conversation and signposting to the DemCon website
You might be used to having these conversations, but if not the following ideas might be useful:
- Carers might avoid starting conversations about continence problems. Therefore, it’s important to ask if toilet use or continence is becoming a problem.
- It might be helpful to familiarise yourself with the DemCon website to understand more about the types of problems that carers can face so that you can ask about them.
- Conversation starters:
- Explain that this is a very common problem.
- Instead of asking if the person they care for has incontinence problems, ask if they have any problems getting to or using the toilet.
- Keep the option open to ask for help in the future if they don’t want any now.
- Use the DemCon website:
- Ask about their specific problems.
- Sign-post to relevant advice topics on the website.
- Discuss realistic goals.
“I think broaching it, saying something like: Do you ever find it difficult to get to the toilet on time? and just seeing how open a person is to that, rather than maybe using the word incontinent. … Ask them how are they currently managing, ask them questions like: Has it gotten worse? What do you think would be helpful?”
Occupational Therapist