Dementia & Continence
June 21, 2022
Understanding how to facilitate continence for people with dementia in acute hospital settings: raising awareness and improving care.
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We were particularly interested to investigate how people with a diagnosis of dementia were cared for following an admission to hospital after an acute health event, such as a chest infection or a fractured neck of femur.
Our reason for this was two-fold; firstly, due to increasing life expectancy, the number of people in hospital who have a diagnosis of dementia has dramatically increased.
Secondly, statistics showed that the outcomes for people living with dementia were far worse than those without. This was so across all clinical conditions.
The ‘Research for Patient Benefit’ (RfPB), one of several NIHR research programmes funded the study. It was well received and gathered a lot of media attention.
During the study, one of the key observations was around how continence care was managed. This led to the second study, also fund by the RfPB programme.
Our new project has attracted more funding as the NIHR believe what we study is of primary importance in ensuring the well-being of people who live with dementia
Understanding how to facilitate continence for people with dementia in acute hospital settings: raising awareness and improving care.
Understanding the everyday use of restrictive practices in the care of people living with dementia during a hospital admission: reducing inappropriate use, identifying good practice and alternative approaches to reduce risk and improve care.
Underserved and overlooked: Investigating the management of refusal of care in people with dementia admitted to hospital with an acute condition.
Our latest report carried out by Professor Katie Featherstone and Dr Andy Northcott, and a wider interdisciplinary team presents the findings of our latest new ethnographic research, Understanding how to facilitate continence for people with dementia in acute hospital setting.
Published November 2020 as part of the Routledge Studies in Health and Medical Anthropology series, Wandering the wards and is an open access publication available free to download.