Question
How would you suggest we go about educating clinicians, physicians and the public on awareness for the treatment possibilities of urinary incontinence.
Answer
That is a great question, and it's been one of my life's missions. One thing that we have done at Brooks [Brooks Rehabilitation in Jacksonville, Florida] is that we have created a number of patient education bookmarks; they are little brochures. At the top they say, "Did you know?" "Did you know that urine leakage is not normal?" So, we take every opportunity to educate our patients when we come into contact with them. Here at Brooks we also screen every single patient at every level of care. They are all asked the screening question, "Have you leaked urine, even a small amount, at any time in the last 3 months?" So we ask the screening questions, and we educate.
We have posters up in all of the restrooms across our system of care. They say "End the silent suffering of urine leakage. Talk to a Physical Therapist about your treatment options." All clinicians: Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists and Speech Therapists, are educated about incontinence here and asked to refer patients who have a problem.
In terms of educating physicians, I have found that the most effective method is educating one at a time. I wish that I had a large forum that I could educate physicians, but I have found that I need to talk to them one at a time, share the evidence, share the patient success stories, and then they begin to understand just how effective these interventions are.
