Iatrogenic Incontinence In Institutional Care Settings

In this engaging podcast, the expert panel leverages their research to draw attention to institutional structures and processes of care that are risk factors for iatrogenic incontinence.

The public rightly expects high quality dignified care for all, including older people and persons living with dementia who require care in an institutional care setting such as a hospital or care home. However, in many countries, care quality within these institutions falls far below the public’s expectations.

Throughout the episode, the speakers articulate the system-level, long-term economic and environmental impacts of the lack of attention to incontinence and continence caregiving in public health and policy. Professor Joan Ostaszkiewicz advocates for continence care that foregrounds the person’s dignity in everyday care interactions. Professor Katie Featherstone describes how her ethnographic research illuminated practices in hospitals that systematically fail to recognise and meet the basic hygiene needs of older people and people living with dementia. Dr Tiina Vaittinnen argues that iatrogenic incontinence is a form of harm and injustice that is deeply imbued in the present cultures of care in institutionalised care settings and that it is caused by dysfunctional health systems.

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