An Effective Response to the Impact of Health Stigma Is Within Our Reach

We’re experiencing a renaissance of civil rights in this country. A woman has run for President of the United States on a major party ticket. People can marry whomever they choose. The country is caught up in a retelling of the story of our founding fathers – in a hip-hop musical written by a Latino and featuring a colorblind cast.

Major shifts indeed. And we plan to ignite yet another – for people of every age, gender, and life situation. For people who have difficulty walking, seeing, hearing, or comprehending the world around them, and millions more who cope with health conditions, seen and unseen, that redefine their life options. Disability and other health challenges have many causes – from accident, to disease, to genetic chance. The result is often a daily test of individual resolve and strength. But along with these solitary struggles, there is one common to all: stigma.Continue reading→

When It Happens a Hundred Plus Times a Year, You Tend to Assume

One of my colleagues, a life coach, says if you are going to assume an outcome, then choose the assumption that makes you the happiest. It’s some of the best advice I’ve ever had…I fail miserably at it!

The problem is, when it happens a hundred plus times a year, my personal version of “stranger danger,” I tend to assume it is about to happen again whenever I am using crutches, sporting a visible difference in the form of a leg brace, and a stranger approaches.Continue reading→

Central Street America

It’s funny what can bring you hope, sometimes it can be the simplest thing and yesterday it was, with the bonus of it happening on a picture perfect fall day.

Yes, Fall is finally here in the Midwest, the squirrels are crazy busy, school is back in session, and it is raining leaves! It’s once again that time of year when if you don’t have children to pick up after school you stay off the roads when the yellow buses swarm…stopping frequently (and holding up traffic) while their charges finally spill from the bus!

But sometimes household or work-related schedules must be met and even sans kids, you find yourself caught up in the after school mayhem. While it Continue reading→

Focus Group Opportunity in the Chicagoland Area

If urinary incontinence is affecting your life, please help The Simon Foundation for Continence understand your challenges and give your input to help design a new program we are creating. The study focus groups are 90-minutes long and will take place in June 2019. Current locations are: Evanston, Chicago and Forest Park, Illinois.Continue reading→

Time to Tackle ‘Taboo’ Over Continence Issues, Warn Charities

The 10 charities, including Alzheimer’s Society, Age UK, Marie Curie, warned that the taboo around the topic forces those affected to struggle in silence and more research is needed. As a result, the organisations held a workshop where common problems and solutions for incontinence issues were discussed by patients, carers, researchers and clinicians. Others involved include Parkinson’s UK, Guts UK, the Urology Foundation, Devices for Dignity, the National Institute for Health Research, and the James Lind Alliance. A report based on the meeting – titled My bladder and bowel own my life and published today – recommends tackling the stigma and funding research into the issue. Read more.

Source: Nursing Times, August 22, 2018

Incontinence Affects More Than 200m People Worldwide, So Why Isn’t More Being Done to Find a Cure?

For a chronic health condition that causes shame and misery for countless people and costs billions, urinary incontinence keeps a low profile. Media reports about chronic health conditions appear with alarming regularity, but it is rare to read about the debilitating impact of the involuntary leakage of urine. Nevertheless, urinary incontinence is a condition which, next to Alzheimer’s or strokes, is reported as most negatively affecting “health-related quality of life”. The reasons for this are not too hard to fathom. Urinary incontinence, of course, elicits some embarrassment. And there also seems to be a feeling this is a low priority condition: urinary incontinence does not directly bear up against the terrible impacts of life threatening conditions and illnesses. Read more.

Source: The Conversation, February 14, 2018

Friends Adult Diapers Flags Off Its First Ad Campaign

With the campaign, Friends Adults Diapers aims is to blow the lid off the issue and show how liberating life can be again for a senior who is homebound due to incontinence. Adult Incontinence is considered a taboo across in India, it is brushed away under the carpet and ignored like it doesn’t exist. The brand has launched the country’s first ever campaign for the category, bringing the spotlight on the subject, in a unique light-hearted manner that’s bound to resonate with people across the country. With the campaign, Friends Adults Diapers aims is to blow the lid off the issue and show how liberating life can be again for a senior who is homebound due to incontinence; how one product can bring about a life-altering change in the lives of our elders and how accepting the problem and its solution can leave the senior citizens with happiness and freedom in the last leg of their lives. Read more.

Source: ETBrandEquity.com, November 24, 2017

The Foundation Hosts Round Table on Long-term Care, Assisted Living, and Incontinence

Incontinence in long-term care and in assisted living was discussed at the Round Table.

Chicago, Ill. (June 1, 2005) – In April 2005 the Simon Foundation for Continence launched its program on Aging 2005 by hosting a two day round table discussion about the state of incontinence care in long-term care and assisted living. Experts brought together from throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe focused on the impact of incontinence on residents of these facilities. The meeting, held in Chicago, was chaired by Professor Christine Norton, PhD, RN, from St. Mark’s Hospital (U.K.) and Mary Radtke Klein, President, Assisted Living Associates (Oregon), both members of the Simon Foundation’s Advisory Board.Continue reading→

The Simon Foundation for Continence Announces First Anti-Stigma Song

Chicago, Ill. (June 2003) – The Simon Foundation for Continence recently launched “I Am More,” the first anti-stigma song. “I Am More” will be used as the theme song for the Foundation’s anti-stigma in healthcare campaign. This song was recently premiered at The Simon Foundation’s June 2003 International Conference on Stigma in Healthcare, and was also highlighted at a Town Meeting on Stigma, the Foundation’s black tie Gala held at the Chicago Historical Society, and at the Jim Mullen Foundation’s first New Freedom Awards Celebration Gala held a the Grand Ballroom on Navy Pier in Chicago on July 22, 2003.Continue reading→