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→

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→

NorthShore’s Revolutionary Adult Diaper is Designed to Reduce Stigma Surrounding Heavy Incontinence

Over 80 million adults in the U.S. manage some level of urinary or bowel incontinence, and many millions more will be faced with leaks and loss of control later in life. The good news is many of these symptoms are treatable or can be managed using incontinence pads bought in stores. But what if that isn’t enough? For people who have heavy incontinence and need stronger, more absorbent products than those found in stores, their options have been limited to clinical hospital-like briefs. Until now. Earlier this year, NorthShore Care Supply, a Buffalo Grove Illinois-based company founded to empower those with heavy bladder or bowel leakage, unveiled its popular SupremeLite™ absorbent brief, now in vibrant shades of blue, green and purple. Read more.

Source: Newswire.com., April 23, 2019

Nearly Half of Women Over 50 Experience Incontinence, but Most Haven’t Talked to a Doctor

Nearly half of women over 50 say they sometimes leak urine — a problem that can range from a minor nuisance to a major issue — according to a new national poll. Of more than 1,000 women between the ages of 50 and 80 who answered the poll, 43 percent of women in their 50s and early 60s said they had experienced urinary incontinence, as had 51 percent of those age 65 and over. Yet two-thirds of these women hadn’t talked to a doctor about the sometimes embarrassing, little-discussed issue. And only 38 percent said they do exercises that can strengthen the muscles that can help keep urine in. The poll shows they’re finding ways of coping on their own – from using pads or special underwear to wearing dark clothing and limiting fluid intake. Read more.

Source: MHealth Lab, OCtober 31, 2018

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

Finding Freedom and Eliminating Stigma

My Story – Submitted by: Waldo

This story was originally published in the Danish magazine Vertel. You can access the original story and photos here: https://www.medireva.nl/wp-content/uploads/MEDIREVA-Vertel-lente-versie.pdf

Here is the author’s English translation, which he has asked that we share with you.

Dear reader,
I would like to share my personal story with you. I want to contribute to the elimination of the stigma and the taboo around incontinence. Continue reading→

Tackling the Taboos – Alex Cole-Hamilton Leads Holyrood Debate on Incontinence

As we reported last month, Alex Cole-Hamilton brought a motion calling for a National Continence Strategy to the Scottish Parliament. It was debated yesterday. Here is Alex’s speech. He is pictured here with Elaine Miller, his constituent whose show Gusset Grippers highlighted the issue at this year’s Edinburgh Festival.

If we ask anyone in this chamber or beyond it what their top five fears of age or infirmity might be, we can be sure that the subject of this debate will sit right up there. However, I state from the outset that, if we, as legislators, assume that incontinence is a condition only of the old or infirm, we are mistaken and are part of the problem. I called for the debate because women and men of all ages suffer in silence. It is high time that they are made aware of, and given, treatment, support and—most important—hope. Read more.

Source:Liberal Democrat Voice, November 17, 2017

Rick Rader, MD, Defeating Stigma in Healthcare Award Recipient for 2013

Dr. Rick Rader accepting the Defeating Stigma in Healthcare Award

Chicago, IL, May 11, 2013 –(PR.com)– The Simon Foundation for Continence recently announced Rick Rader, MD, as the 2013 Defeating Stigma in Healthcare Award recipient. Dr. Rader is the Director of the Morton J. Kent Habilitation Center at the Orange Grove Center (Chattanooga, TN), a nationally known community agency supporting the needs of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.Continue reading→

Learning to Dance in the Rain

Adjusting to a stigmatizing health condition happens, in all likelihood, in a series of phases perhaps not unlike those described by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross when she put forth her ideas about the process of death and dying. Goffman in his study of stigma suggests that there indeed is such a process: “the stigmatized individual can come to feel that he should be above passing, that if he accepts himself and respects himself he will feel no need to conceal his failing”. However, Goffman then goes on to write that many people (who may even be priding themselves on having made the adjustment to their stigmatizing condition) aren’t even aware that they may be doing something called covering.

Continue reading→