The Telegraph has reported another shocking news story about elderly people being mistreated by a senior care home nurse so she could have a quite night while on duty.

According to the Telegraph, a 63 year old nurse working at St James’ Park Nursing Home in Dorset was sedating patients, putting call bells out of reach and putting extra incontinence pads on residents so she would not have to change their sheets.

Many of the patients under her care were highly vulnerable and many were dependent on her to meet their basic needs. She was only stopped when a healthcare assistant, Anthony Pitcher, blew the whistle on her.

Mr Pitcher said he often saw Haskings put two incontinence pads on patients at night so she would not have to change the bed sheets in the morning. He also witnessed Haskings taking call bells away from patients.

Jillian Alderwick, chairman of the panel – who worked at St James’ Park Nursing Home in Dorset – said that Haskings had set an “appalling example” to junior staff, commenting that:

“Further the panel considers that the placing of call bells out of the reach of residents was nothing short of abuse and the inappropriate application of more than one continence pad at a time was an assault on the dignity of these vulnerable, elderly residents. Having considered the matter carefully, the panel has come to conclusion that the misconduct in this case was so serious that it is fundamentally incompatible with the registrant continuing to be registered with the NMC.”

The nurse was found guilty of dishonestly obtaining Temazepam tablets, administering unprescribed medication to patients, sleeping on shift, removing their call bells and applying extra incontinence pads. The panel ruled that she should be struck off the register but she was cleared of failing to carry out hourly checks on residents.

Source: The Telegraph Online

Although we’re approaching the end of January, it’s not too late to make a resolution to take control of your incontinence if you are one of the many people who deal with it daily. As with any resolution; commitment and consistency will be a deciding factor. Here are 5:

1)    8 pelvic floor lift and holds per day

Like any muscle in the body, your pelvic floor muscles grow stronger with the right type of exercise. To make these key muscles work better for you, it’s important to do at least 8 consecutive pelvic floor contractions a day. To do this, you have to squeeze your sphincter muscle as though you’re trying to block the flow of urine. This will, in a sense, ‘lift’ your internal muscles and will feel rather uncomfortable at first. This is simply because the sensation will be unfamiliar. However with every rep, you have to concentrate on ‘holding’ it for longer and with increased internal strain. Do these lift-and-holds often enough and you will notice your pelvic floor muscles become stronger.

2)    Find your neutral spine posture and hold it

Take a mirror and stand sideways. You want to find your spine’s natural curves. For most people, their spine sits on a slight concave at the base and leads up to a gentle rounding of their upper back and then a slight concave of the neck leading to the skull. To find your neutral spine position you, stand with soft knees (in other words, don’t lock them so your legs are ridged). Next, adopt a gymnast stretching pose by putting your hands on your hips and rocking your pelvis back and forth. You should feel strained when arching back. After some time, revert back to your soft knees stance. Now draw in your belly button in, tightening the imaginary corset around your spine. You body will naturally find its natural posture from doing this. Finding and holding this posture allows your pelvic floor muscles to react and contract when you cough, lift or laugh.

3)    Exercises per day to work specific muscle groups

Your inner thighs, transverses abdominus and hip rotator muscles work in coordination to stabilise your pelvic floor muscles in between going to the toilet. Working on these muscle groups has a profound effect on the front, back and sides of the abdominal and pelvic muscle which, in turn, exerts more control over the bladder muscles. A local personal trainer or physical therapist will most likely have a host of strengthening exercises that you can do daily.

4)    Drink more water

This is the opposite of what many people with urinary incontinence do, but is exactly what a healthy body needs. Nutrition experts reckon eight 64oz cups of water per day is sufficient. Why? Among other things, water flushes the system as much of the foods we eat are, by themselves, irritants to the bladder. Such irritation leads to increased frequency and intensity of urge. It’s a simple case of: more water, the more diluted potential irritants will be.

5)    Get out and move!

Nothing is better for your neuromuscular, cardiovascular, digestive and respiratory system than simple, straightforward exercise. Whether it’s walking, dancing, swimming or running up and down your stairs. The positive effects on your continence should simply not be underestimated. Our bodies are amazing and as long as you’re committed to doing a combination of pelvic floor lifts, adopting the correct spinal posture and regular cardiovascular exercise, you will see a market improvement in your ability to control continence.

Have you got anything you would like to add to this post? Please do so in our comments section!

If you have questions, doubts and concerns about incontinence, don’t hesitate to contact our specialist nurse Shona about it, all questions are dealt with discretion and privacy.

If you involuntarily leak urine under internal pressures caused by sneezing, laughing or heavy lifting, it’s more than likely you have Stress incontinence. Embarrassing? Yes. Incurable? No. Unfortunately you will have to consult an expert and this will involve being upfront about the situation in order for them to propose the right treatment. A gynaecologist, while an expert, still needs your input to fully judge the situation. For that reason, it benefits both parties for you to have the essential information prepared before an appointment. Here are 7 questions likely to be asked by an incontinence expert when evaluating you.

Do you leak urine when laughing, coughing, lifting, and so on?

This is a certain indicator of whether you have some degree of stress related incontinence. What varies is the treatment, as the root cause can be different things and requires varying treatment.

Does it hurt when you urinate?

This could mean you have a urinary tract infection that requires antibiotics to treat. That is, until further diagnostics are made. In other words, it may only require antibiotics to kill off unwanted germs.

How often do you empty your bladder in the daytime?

This is an instance where keeping a record can give an expert an accurate picture of what’s going on in your bladder. I can also be used to track your own progress, further down the line.

Are you always aware of the leaking occurring?

An upgraded management plan may be necessary to avoid embarrassing incidence if this happens to you.

Do you wear incontinence pads, and how often doo you need to change them?

This sort of question is aimed at gauging the severity of the condition and helps indicate whether exercises are sufficient, or if more advance procedures such as medication or surgery.

Do you leak urine on the way to the bathroom, when you have a strong urge to pee?

A sign that overactive bladder syndrome is present in conjunction with stress incontinence.

Are you woken up by the urge to urinate in the night-time?

An expert will be keen to know whether you’re woken up by the urge to urinate, or woken up by other things and then need to go – another indicator of severity that will decide a course of action for dealing with the problem.

Do you wear incontinence pads, and how often doo you need to change them?

This sort of question is aimed at gauging the severity of the condition and helps indicate whether exercises are sufficient, or if more advance procedures such as medication or surgery.

Do you leak urine on the way to the bathroom, when you have a strong urge to pee?

A sign that overactive bladder syndrome is present in conjunction with stress incontinence.

Are you woken up by the urge to urinate in the night-time?

An expert will be keen to know whether you’re woken up by the urge to urinate, or woken up by other things and then need to go – another indicator of severity that will decide a course of action for dealing with the problem.

Have you got a question you want to ask about incontinence? Please don’t hesitate to use our comments section below or if you prefer a more discreet way to ask for incontinence advice ask our nurse specialist Shona.

Carer UK is an organisation of carers fighting for the rights of carers across the country. Their aim is to make people recognise the true value of carers’ contribution to society and help them get the practical, financial and emotional support carers deserve and need.

In order to help Carers UK reach as many potential carers as possible, the organisation incites people to take in events and sponsorship activities that will help raise funds to aid carers across the country.

One of the most popular is the London Marathon sponsorship scheme, which includes a free membership for a year (worth £18), a free running vest or t-shirt and fundraising tip and support throughout training.

Runners interested in running for Carers UK this year must contact 020 7378 4952 or via email info@carersuk.org. You must hurry as there are only 2 gold bond places left.

Other fundraising schemes are:

Adidas Women’s 5K Challenge
Great North Run
Great Scottish Run
2010 Kilimanjaro Climb
2010 Nightrider

If you are interested in any of those schemes visit Carers UK Fundraising events page for detailed information on how you can help carers have a better quality of life.

Incontinence affects over 6 million people in the UK; despite the high occurrence figures there are many myths that surround it. With that in mind, we came up with what we think are the most common incontinence myths and we asked our nurse specialist Shona to ‘bust’ them.

Myth 1: Incontinence is a disease
Fact: Incontinence is not a disease; it is a condition that can be temporary or ongoing.

Myth 2: Incontinence naturally occurs as we get older.
Fact: Incontinence is not an aging problem, although its occurrence is more common in older people. Some women experience incontinence after birth despite their age and there is even a form of incontinence called light adult incontinence. So we can say that incontinence is not considered a normal part of aging.

Myth 3: There is only one type of incontinence.
Fact: Our loyal readers might say that this can not even be considered a myth, but many people still think there is only one type of incontinence. To cut a long explanation short, there is Faecal Incontinence and Urinary Incontinence which can further vary in type – more info on this subject can be found on our Incontinence Help and Advice section.

Myth 4: Incontinence can only be treated with surgery.
Fact: Again, our readers will know perfectly well that this is a myth. Surgery is not an inevitable treatment for incontinence, there are many treatment options that can be tried out before considering surgery which highlights the importance of an accurate diagnose and leads us to our fifth myth…

Myth 5: Incontinence is a private matter.
Fact: We perfectly understand that incontinence can be an embarrassing condition and you might not even want to talk about it with anyone – not even your doctor. That is the biggest mistake anyone experiencing incontinence can make. Incontinence is treatable and is more common that many might think so don’t hide it.

Do you have any incontinence myths that you would like our “Myth Busting Nurse” to demystify them? If so, please leave them in our comments section and Shona will bust them for you or if you prefer you ask a discreet question on Shona’s special page here on All About Incontinence.

Here are a few methods that are either advocated practicing incontinence nurses that you can get going with immediately if you suspect that you have either Stress or Urge incontinence.

Unfortunately there is no quick-fix solution with either condition – the exception being certain surgical procedures – however with some focus and effort there are proved ways to curb male and female incontinence.

The first and perhaps most demanding way of numbering the number of incident of incontinence, is to lose weight.

Regularly emptying your bladder is a very important thing to do. It does not necessarily reduce or cure incontinence; it has preventative benefits that are necessary to stop the condition worsening. Not going regularly when you have incontinence can lead to problems such as an overstretched bladder or a bladder infection. The most important time to make sure you always go – even if you don’t feel little to no urge – is before and after means and before going to bed.

And even simpler method for dealing with incontinence is to breathe deeply, especially in instance of sudden urges, in which case try your best not to panic with calm inhalations. It helps to think confident thoughts that encourage you to feel in control; telling yourself you are not going to have an accident while you breathe.

By the same token, reducing stress and tension in your life is going to help this process of psychologically managing incontinence, the reason being that emotions and your body’s central nervous system are inextricably linked. Being depressed, anxious or angry all the while can negatively affect you bodily sensations. At the very least, it’s worth taking at least an hour out of every day to walk in the park, have a bath, watch a movie you know you like etc. Any activity that helps you to unwind – which, actually, is good to do regardless.

Incontinence can come as an especially cruel blow to those in later life. It’s important to everyone that we grow old gracefully and enjoy our golden years by staying active and independent.

Unfortunately the reality is that the odds of developing various forms of incontinence – either naturally or as a consequence of surgery or illness – get higher with age.

However, forty years ago sufferers of this condition would have had very few available options to manage their incontinence compared with the vast array of incontinence-focused products available that are available today.

Incontinence products were once a case of one-size-fits-all and designed for heavy cases and were therefore too conspicuous for wearers to reasonably feel comfortable in – in both a physical and psychological sense.

Today’s products often carry the same misconception. However, the reality is modern incontinence products come in a range of shapes, styles, sizes and levels of absorption.

The other significant difference between now and then is the level of discretion online retailers can maintain for its customers.

People in need of such purchases no longer have to face any embarrassment of stocking up in front of strangers.

In all, the mentality surrounding incontinence has significantly moved on and rightly so, because so have the products themselves. There is a growing market built around different that offer the best solution that can give the confidence to go about living an active and rewarding life.