Re-useable continence pants instead of disposable ones?

Yes, there are definitely washable knickers that work. I've used Wearever pants but then I came across Jude supplements which I have taken for the last 10 months. Total difference - no more leaks as soon as I leave the house; can go to the gym without worrying and even on longer trips. One caveat: was told citrus drinks could irritate the bladder and I used to drink PLJ lemon juice every day. I stopped doing this, with the result I don't know whether it's the supplements or dropping the citrus provided the solution.

SueDonim the thought of a teenage girl having to endure that distressing situation is heartbreaking.

Being incontinent is not a normal state of health. If one is incontinent something has gone wrong, be it birth damage, disability, dementia, trauma or illness.

A friend’s teenage daughter had a fistula after bowel surgery, meaning faeces escaped from bowel to vagina. I cannot believe anyone would begrudge her continence supplies so she could manage what was an incredibly distressing situation. Thank god, the problem was resolved eventually but that poor girl suffered, I can tell you.

Agree JaneJudge you have to be referred to the Bowel and Bladder Community Service via GP when you have serious medical problem..I have a prolapse and was assessed over 12 mths by some really great understanding nurses...they referred me to a service provider who now send out these pads...I'm hoping for a repair but have been waiting for 3yrs and am very grateful to receive these as my issue is a medical one. I've had accidents/near accidents and its a mortifying situation which has encroached into my personal/work life and unless I know where a toilet is based in any place/building/restaurant, I will not visit! Some on here seem to lack empathy and compassion!

there are plenty of period pants on the market and the M&S ones are cheap (3 for £15) so of course they can be used for leaking pee as they can for leaking blood. I recently had a bout of cystitis where there was some incontinence and they were great. They wick the damp away and can just be put in the washing machine. tick tick. no more landfill. sometimes technology really helps us and we should be quick to pick it up.

JaneJudge

Sorry for yet another post but the amount you are given by the service are not enough to satisfy the need so you have to 'top up' on products anyway.

There is a good service in Telford called continence choice, by the way. They allow bulk orders with next day delivery. This is not an advert - just in case people think you can only buy them in the chemist

For anyone looking for top ups or to buy at reasonable prices Age UK are very helpful too.

JaneJudge

You can have the pad of choice but they may give you less than the contracted amount if they are more expensive.

The continence nursing team are not just handing out pads anyway, they assess someones needs and they give advice on toileting/timings etc It is difficult to get pads unless you incontinent day and night and as others have said, it usually ties in with a severe disability.

I came to add to the original post. You can pay for a clinical waste collection. Your social services department will know what services are available locally

This is what we found with mum. Once we advised there was a problem with the pads they were quite prepared to replace them with padded pants, but they reassessed the amount needed, and supplied less. The waste management team at our LA referred us for a clinical waste collection - we have to pay for this but it’s much better for the environment as everything is incinerated rather than going into landfill.

Sorry for yet another post but the amount you are given by the service are not enough to satisfy the need so you have to 'top up' on products anyway.

There is a good service in Telford called continence choice, by the way. They allow bulk orders with next day delivery. This is not an advert - just in case people think you can only buy them in the chemist

I sincerely hope the people posting negatively on this thread never find themselves in the position of needing incontinence aids for themselves or a family member, and never need to apply for support such as PIP. These health and finance situations can be incredibly stressful.
What is that phrase? You never know what tomorrow will bring.

Imarocker

DM was allowed one pack of incontinence pads per month ie one a day. We had to buy the rest. As for Maddyone, who is going to decide what the NHS can/ can’t afford? Will we decide certain illnesses shouldn’t be treated?

This is what people don’t realise unless they’ve been involved with continence services isn’t it ? The assumption is that people always get what they need when in fact the service is limited like all NHS provision and other alternatives such as condition management will be explored first. They don’t simply hand out pads to everyone and when they do it’s according to the level of need assessed, which doesn’t necessarily fully meet that need. I find it really odd that anyone would have a problem with this provision as the standard products available to buy on the high street are not designed to meet the needs of those with higher levels of disability and the specialist products available from disability suppliers are prohibitively expensive.

Being incontinent can be a medical need as well, I'm not sure how it falls under 'social care' whose funding is cut to the bone too.

You can have the pad of choice but they may give you less than the contracted amount if they are more expensive.

The continence nursing team are not just handing out pads anyway, they assess someones needs and they give advice on toileting/timings etc It is difficult to get pads unless you incontinent day and night and as others have said, it usually ties in with a severe disability.

I came to add to the original post. You can pay for a clinical waste collection. Your social services department will know what services are available locally

Hellogirl1

My daughter didn`t like the free ones, they`re just large pads, like a nappy, so she buys her own Tena pants, but they`re not cheap.

If your daughter contacts continence services and explains her difficulties with the larger pads, they may change them for the padded disposable pants. They don’t offer them as standard because they're more expensive but they will issue them where the standard pads aren’t suitable. They’re not Tena but they’re very similar. We did this for my mum - she has dementia and we didn’t realise that the pads were chafing until the carer mentioned it - continence services were happy to change to the pants in those circumstances.

DM was allowed one pack of incontinence pads per month ie one a day. We had to buy the rest. As for Maddyone, who is going to decide what the NHS can/ can’t afford? Will we decide certain illnesses shouldn’t be treated?

My daughter didn`t like the free ones, they`re just large pads, like a nappy, so she buys her own Tena pants, but they`re not cheap.

maddyone

You don’t have to fight tooth and nail to get Attendance Allowance at all. We applied and got it for all our parents because they lived to their nineties and suffered massive loss of independence as a result. The form can be completed online and is easy to fill in providing you have the necessary information at your fingertips, and the person is disabled enough to qualify.

That may have been your experience, but it certainly wasn't ours. Both my inlaws were in their mid 90s at the time and I can assure you the process was anything but simple. I find your answers very dismissive when you have no idea what someone else may have been going through. Just because you found a particular process straightforward does not mean it is the same for everyone else.

maddyone

You don’t have to fight tooth and nail to get Attendance Allowance at all. We applied and got it for all our parents because they lived to their nineties and suffered massive loss of independence as a result. The form can be completed online and is easy to fill in providing you have the necessary information at your fingertips, and the person is disabled enough to qualify.

Many people do have to fight tooth and nail for AA and other disability benefits such as PIP and child DLA if their condition isn’t well understood by the DWP assessors or they are unable to get help completing the forms. It’s not just a question of being disabled enough to qualify, it’s convincing the DWP of that. My mum was denied AA despite having vascular dementia because the DWP assessor was a paramedic and had little knowledge of the condition. We had to complete tribunal forms and get specialist medical reports before they changed their minds. It’s not always as straightforward as it seems.

maddyone

My mother needed incontinence pads. She started with the usual Tena Lady, and went up to the very high absorbency in those, and eventually, when she was very disabled, she needed the kind of protection that covers both bladder and bowel incontinence. As did my father in law. So I do know something about it and we never asked the NHS to prescribe those pads. Some people are simply rude and entitled. My daughter is a doctor and has told me as much!

If you were fortunate enough to be able to afford the pads when your parents needed them that’s great. But not everyone is in that position and to label substantially disabled people as rude and entitled for needing that help is - well, words fail me actually. Especially coming from a doctor. I don’t want to derail the thread any further, so let’s leave this here.

You don’t have to fight tooth and nail to get Attendance Allowance at all. We applied and got it for all our parents because they lived to their nineties and suffered massive loss of independence as a result. The form can be completed online and is easy to fill in providing you have the necessary information at your fingertips, and the person is disabled enough to qualify.

My mother needed incontinence pads. She started with the usual Tena Lady, and went up to the very high absorbency in those, and eventually, when she was very disabled, she needed the kind of protection that covers both bladder and bowel incontinence. As did my father in law. So I do know something about it and we never asked the NHS to prescribe those pads. Some people are simply rude and entitled. My daughter is a doctor and has told me as much!

MissInterpreted

Pammie1

maddyone

It’s not ignorance, it’s fact. The NHS is there to provide for illness, not to provide for every social need. Incontinence pads can be bought out of the Attendance Allowance or Independent Living Allowance because that’s the kind of thing it’s for. To call another poster ignorant just because you don’t agree with that poster is the height of rudeness.

I didn’t call you ignorant, I said your post is ignorant. And it is. It’s not fact, at all, it’s the product of posting without actually knowing what you’re talking about, and in the process being quite insulting to disabled people by suggesting that (and I’ve heard this a thousand times) ‘that’s what your AA, or PIP, is for’.

The people we’re talking about have high levels of disability and recent studies have shown that the extra cost of living with a severe disability is roughly twice what is actually paid even at the higher rates of disability benefits. As an example, my relative has spina bifida, and no control over either bladder or bowel. They are supplied with specialist padding - twenty to a pack, at a cost to the NHS of £30 a pack and use three packs a week. So without NHS help, in one week she would use up the entire PIP care allowance just on pads - nothing left over for any other disability related expense, and that’s assuming that she would be entitled to the higher rates of the allowance.

We’re not talking about someone peeing when they cough and rocking up at incontinence services demanding Tena pants, we’re talking about people with incontinence as part of substantial disability. About which you clearly know nothing. So, sorry, rude or not, I stand by what I said.

Well said! Not to mention the fact that we had to fight tooth and nail to actually get attendance allowance for my MiL in the first place. If you suffer from severe incontinence as part of a substantial disability, as you have said, you could easily use up that allowance just on pads alone. It's easy to be dismissive unless you've actually been through it yourself.

You also have to fight tooth and nail to get any help from incontinence services, but the way people are talking here, you’d think they hand out pads like sweets. My relative has a substantial disability and has no bladder or bowel control and she had to go through several condition management processes before they would authorise pads. Same with my mum - she has absence of bladder control due to breast cancer and had to go through the humiliation of being quizzed about her toilet routine, and was asked to limit her fluid intake until her GP stepped in because there was a risk of UTI’s. Only then did they provide padding. As you say, until you’ve been through it you don’t realise the misery incontinence can cause. And when it’s an aspect of major disability it’s really insulting to class it along with minor stress incontinence and deem it unworthy of NHS funding. We’ll be asking stoma patients to fund their own bags next !!

Pammie1

maddyone

It’s not ignorance, it’s fact. The NHS is there to provide for illness, not to provide for every social need. Incontinence pads can be bought out of the Attendance Allowance or Independent Living Allowance because that’s the kind of thing it’s for. To call another poster ignorant just because you don’t agree with that poster is the height of rudeness.

I didn’t call you ignorant, I said your post is ignorant. And it is. It’s not fact, at all, it’s the product of posting without actually knowing what you’re talking about, and in the process being quite insulting to disabled people by suggesting that (and I’ve heard this a thousand times) ‘that’s what your AA, or PIP, is for’.

The people we’re talking about have high levels of disability and recent studies have shown that the extra cost of living with a severe disability is roughly twice what is actually paid even at the higher rates of disability benefits. As an example, my relative has spina bifida, and no control over either bladder or bowel. They are supplied with specialist padding - twenty to a pack, at a cost to the NHS of £30 a pack and use three packs a week. So without NHS help, in one week she would use up the entire PIP care allowance just on pads - nothing left over for any other disability related expense, and that’s assuming that she would be entitled to the higher rates of the allowance.

We’re not talking about someone peeing when they cough and rocking up at incontinence services demanding Tena pants, we’re talking about people with incontinence as part of substantial disability. About which you clearly know nothing. So, sorry, rude or not, I stand by what I said.

Well said! Not to mention the fact that we had to fight tooth and nail to actually get attendance allowance for my MiL in the first place. If you suffer from severe incontinence as part of a substantial disability, as you have said, you could easily use up that allowance just on pads alone. It's easy to be dismissive unless you've actually been through it yourself.

I agree, maddyone

My mother needed them so we bought them. I wouldn't have dreamt of asking the NHS to provide them. I didn't even know you could ask the NHS!

maddyone

It’s not ignorance, it’s fact. The NHS is there to provide for illness, not to provide for every social need. Incontinence pads can be bought out of the Attendance Allowance or Independent Living Allowance because that’s the kind of thing it’s for. To call another poster ignorant just because you don’t agree with that poster is the height of rudeness.

I didn’t call you ignorant, I said your post is ignorant. And it is. It’s not fact, at all, it’s the product of posting without actually knowing what you’re talking about, and in the process being quite insulting to disabled people by suggesting that (and I’ve heard this a thousand times) ‘that’s what your AA, or PIP, is for’.

The people we’re talking about have high levels of disability and recent studies have shown that the extra cost of living with a severe disability is roughly twice what is actually paid even at the higher rates of disability benefits. As an example, my relative has spina bifida, and no control over either bladder or bowel. They are supplied with specialist padding - twenty to a pack, at a cost to the NHS of £30 a pack and use three packs a week. So without NHS help, in one week she would use up the entire PIP care allowance just on pads - nothing left over for any other disability related expense, and that’s assuming that she would be entitled to the higher rates of the allowance.

We’re not talking about someone peeing when they cough and rocking up at incontinence services demanding Tena pants, we’re talking about people with incontinence as part of substantial disability. About which you clearly know nothing. So, sorry, rude or not, I stand by what I said.

We use Wuka period pants here, and they have an incontinence range.