Meeting the needs of older people living at home with dementia who have problems with continence
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the question of how to meet the needs of older people living at home with dementia who have problems with continence. The paper is focused on social care practice in community settings.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is practice focused and draws on the authors’ research and experiences in clinical care, workforce development and service improvement.
Findings
This paper summarises research on incontinence and its negative effects on quality of life and care relationships. It describes the impact of incontinence in terms of social embarrassment, restricted social activity, extra work (such as laundry) and costs, but also distress. It links research with care practice, with a focus on people with dementia who may be at particular risk of both continence problems and of assumptions that nothing can be done to assist them.
Social implications
This paper provides questions that could be addressed in commissioning and provision of services and argues that they need to be informed by care practitioners’ experiences. It provides details of sources of support that are available at national and local levels.
Originality/value
This paper draws together research on continence and social care practice to provide a series of self-assessment questions for local services. It focuses on social care workers who are at the frontline of practice including personal assistants and carers.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The EVIDEM-C research team also included Laura Cole, Sheila Donovan and Robert Grant. This paper was developed from independent research commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under its Programme Grants for Applied Research scheme (RP-PG-0606-1005 known as EVIDEM evidem.org.uk). The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Central and North London NHS Trust, the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.
Citation
Drennan, V.M., Manthorpe, J. and Ilifffe, S. (2017), "Meeting the needs of older people living at home with dementia who have problems with continence", Quality in Ageing and Older Adults, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 246-253. https://doi.org/10.1108/QAOA-06-2017-0020
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited