Incontinence: We Need to Talk About Leaks

Claire A. Rosato-Scott; Dani Barrington; Amita Bhakta; Sarah House; Islay Mactaggart; Jane Wilbur

Incontinence: We Need to Talk About Leaks

Claire A. Rosato-Scott, Dani Barrington, Amita Bhakta, Sarah House, Islay Mactaggart, Jane Wilbur

Population and Public Health

Research output: Other contribution › peer-review

Abstract

Anyone, of any gender, at any age, can leak urine or faeces.

What would you do if it happened to you?

Imagine if you’d woken up this morning and you’d wet the bed. What would you do? Have a wash, put on clean clothes, change the bedding and put it in a washing machine? You may go to the shop and buy an incontinence pad. And perhaps if you knew that there was help available for leaking urine you’d make an
appointment to see a doctor next week and then just carry on with the rest of your day, dignity intact.

Now imagine if you’d woken up this morning and you’d wet the bed. But to have a wash, or clean your clothes and bedding, you’d have to walk for an hour to collect water. Imagine you are frightened to walk there alone, the path is steep and you struggle to use the hand pump. Even if you did get water, you don’t have enough soap so the smells would linger anyway. And after all that effort, you have nothing to wear to soak up urine if it happens again. What if you didn’t know that leaking urine was common, and you spent the rest of the day worried about your
health and too embarrassed to go to work in case people could tell? What if you were worried that your partner would hit you again for making a mess so you had very little to drink all day for fear of it happening again?

What can you do to support people living with incontinence?

To start, we need to talk about leaks.

Original language	English
Type	Incontinence: We Need to Talk About Leaks
Media of output	PDF
Publisher	Institute of Development Studies
Number of pages	44
Place of Publication	Brighton, UK
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-78118-696-1
Publication status	Published - 22 Oct 2020

Publication series

Name	Frontiers of Sanitation
Publisher	Institute of Development Studies
No.	16

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

https://sanitationlearninghub.org/resource/incontinence-we-need-to-talk-about-leaks/Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Water, Sanitation, and Menstruation Stigma, Everybody Hates Me: Let's Talk About Stigma (podcast)
Dani Barrington
12/11/20
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Press / Media

5 Article
2 Conference presentation/ephemera
2 Article in specialist publication
1 Other output
More
- 1 Poster
- 1 Other contribution

Experiences of children’s self-wetting (including urinary incontinence) in Cox’s Bazar’s Rohingya refugee camps, Bangladesh
Alam, M., Gupta, S., Rosato-Scott, C. A., Shoaib, D. M., Ritu, A. H., Nowshin, R., Rahat, M. A., Akram, N., Rose, J., Evans, B. E. & Barrington, D., 7 Mar 2024, In: PLoS Global Public Health. 4, 3, p. 1-19 e0002362.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Open Access
‘Do not forget us’: the shared experiences and needs of people living with incontinence in humanitarian contexts
Rosato-Scott, C. A., Adjorlolo, S., Farrington, M. & Barrington, D., 1 Mar 2024, In: Journal of Water Sanitation and Hygiene for Development. 14, 3, p. 220-228 9 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Open Access
4 Citations (Scopus)
Understanding children’s experiences of self-wetting (incontinence) in humanitarian contexts
Rosato-Scott, C. A., Alam, M., H, B., Evans, B. E., Gupta, S., Husna, A., Kizza, S., Nassaka-Banja, O., Nowshin, R., Rahat, A., Rose, J., Shoaib, D., Wozei, E. & Barrington, D., 14 Feb 2023.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Conference presentation/ephemera › peer-review

Open Access

Cite this

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Incontinence: We Need to Talk About Leaks

Abstract

Publication series

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Press/Media

Water, Sanitation, and Menstruation Stigma, Everybody Hates Me: Let's Talk About Stigma (podcast)

Research output

Experiences of children’s self-wetting (including urinary incontinence) in Cox’s Bazar’s Rohingya refugee camps, Bangladesh

‘Do not forget us’: the shared experiences and needs of people living with incontinence in humanitarian contexts

Understanding children’s experiences of self-wetting (incontinence) in humanitarian contexts

Cite this