Promoting continence in people with dementia

Watch this video made by the Care Inspectorate for Scotland to raise awareness of the continence needs of people with dementia, and to highlight that promoting continence with this group of people is as relevant and valid as it is for people with any other long-term condition diagnoses.

People with dementia may experience challenges to their continence as a result of:

True incontinence – the inability to control the excretion of urine or faeces.

They may equally experience functional incontinence when they do not have the inability to get to a toilet for physical or mental reasons.

Incontinence of urine or faeces is as distressing and embarrassing for a person with dementia as it is for any other person, and they are entitled to seek and receive evidence-based continence promotion to help them to manage the condition and minimise the impact on them and their families.