Privacy and Dignity in Continence Care Guidelines. Reflective Guidelines for Health and Social Care Settings.

These guidelines are based on the findings from the project ‘Privacy and Dignity in Continence Care for Older People’, funded and supported by the Royal College of Physicians and British Geriatrics Society. The aim of this two year project was to develop a set of guidelines that can help caregivers in a variety of health and social care settings reflect on their practice with respect to maintaining privacy and dignity in continence care. Other dignity guidelines and toolkits have been developed, but not with the focus specifically on continence. The rationale for this is that, however good the care, people with continence problems in an institutional setting have a high chance of suffering loss of dignity because they need help with very intimate care, and this can have a long term effect on self-esteem and self-respect.