| March 1999 |
Received largest ever volume of calls to the
Helpline in a single month - 1,900 (217 on 2 March alone!)
following BBC2’s "Trust Me - I'm a Doctor"
programme. |
| September |
Launched the annual National Continence Awareness
Campaign; issued press release to national and local media;
launched audio press release promoting a Code of Good Practice
for Employers. |
| November |
Recorded largest ever volume of Helpline enquiries
over a twelve-month period: 13,500. |
| |
Started preliminary work on "Making the
Case for Investment in an Integrated Continence Service"
for continence nurse specialists, working in conjunction with
the Association for Continence Advice, the Incontact
user organisation and the Royal College of Nursing Continence
Care Forum. |
| December |
Evaluated draft of Coping Strategies self-help
leaflet with pilot group of users. |
| 2000 |
|
| January |
Published Helpline advertisement in "The
Good Non-Retirement Guide"; released Pre-Retirement Factsheet
to major employers and organisers of pre-retirement courses. |
| February |
Published first issue of Continence
Foundation Review for health professionals and distributed
it with all copies of Pulse with offer of free subscriptions.
|
| March |
Reprinted Urgent Card which
people can use to ask discreetly in shops etc for use of a
lavatory. |
| April |
Published sixth issue of Friends' Newsletter
with detailed summary and critique of the Department of Health's
"Good Practice in Continence Services". |
| May |
Published "Making the Case for
Investment in an Integrated Continence Service"
and "Incontinence - a challenge and an opportunity for
Primary Care" – to fill in the information gaps
left by the Department of Health guidance: Good practice
in continence services |
| |
Published fifth, revised & expanded edition
of "Continence Products Directory" (listing all
continence products available in the UK). |
| June |
Lobbied 30+ MPs to press for Department of
Health monitoring of the implementation of its guidance on
continence services. |
| |
Attended launch of publications to promote
continence for women from Indian subcontinent produced by
working party (of which the Foundation Director was a member)
convened by Tower Hamlets Health Strategy Group. |
| September |
Launched Pregnancy, Birth & Continence
National Continence Awareness Week (published" Expecting
a Baby?" leaflet, publicity posters and toilet stickers,
issued press release to national and local media). |
| October |
Began shooting for "An Everyday Problem",
our video for people with bladder and bowel control problems. |
| November |
Contributed to think-tank on the future of
continence services. |
| |
Lobbied 126 targeted MPs to call for a VAT
cut on continence pads. |
| 2001 |
|
| January |
Provided advice and support for Channel 4’s
"Embarrassing Illnesses - Incontinence" programme. |
| |
Submitted evidence to a Department of Health
review of the remuneration system for appliance dispensing
contractors. |
| |
Submitted evidence to Customs and Excise on
VAT on continence pads sold in the high street. |
| March |
Delegation to Customs and Excise learns of
probable concession on VAT on continence pads sold in the
high street. |
| April |
Launched An Everyday Problem, video
for people with bladder and bowel control problems |
| May |
Foundation patron, Baroness Masham, achieved
u-turn in government nursing home policy: continence services
to be provided to self-funders in nursing home on the same
basis as everyone else
Start of joint project with Sue Thomas, policy advisor to
the RCN, monitoring the implementation of the departmental
guidance, Good practice in continence services. |
| July |
Attended meeting at the Department of Health
to press for coherent implementation of the policy on self-funders
in nursing homes |
| August |
Changed Helpline to an “0845” number
– local call charge from anywhere in the UK |
| September |
Very successful workshop following up the
pilot study for the monitoring project, in the South West.
Continence Awareness Week 17th-23rd
with a leaflet Helping You to Help Yourself about coping with
the emotional effects of bladder and bowel problems. Wide
media coverage and local awareness raising events by continence
services who had received free supplies of the leaflet and
publicity material. |
| October |
AGM 17th, included talk by Sue
Thomas reporting on progress with monitoring the government
guidance. |
| December |
Still pursuing the issue of lack of coherence
in supplying services to self-funders in nursing homes: another
meeting with the Department of Health |
| 2002 |
|
| January |
Start of the Foundation’s Tenth
Anniversary Year. |
| February |
Second workshop for the monitoring project – in the West
Midlands |
| March |
First stage of website re-design completed:
to make more user-friendly. |
| April |
Index of all UK Continence Clinics uploaded to the website,
replacing the previous printed version. Now searchable, including
by postcode, name of advisor, Primary Care Trust,and specialities. |
| May |
Website visitors passed 5,000 per month. |
| June |
Added an open Forum to the website, which
rapidly became popular with both the public and professionals. |
| August |
Published Can't Hold On leaflet |
| September |
Continence Awareness Week with the theme "functional"
incontinence, and a leaflet At Your Convenience. |
| October |
Tenth anniversary conference, Integrated Continence
Services: Good, Better and Best Practice . Sell-out
event in London. Included first stage report from Sue Thomas'
research into the implementation of the Departmental guidance
on continence services, as well as examples of good practice.
Director called as an "expert witness" for the
National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) appraisal
of Tension-free vaginal tape (TVT). |
| 2003 |
|
| January |
Director and publicity officer attended Eli Lilly round table
of patient advocacy groups and healthcare professionals to discuss
issues relating to urinary stress incontinence; director attended
Gynecare TVT media workshop; director attended by invitation
a meeting of the British Geriatric Society special interest
group. |
| March |
Director joined a working party for the National
Service Framework for Long-Term Conditions.
Director facilitated a meeting of Hillingdon PCT to design
integrated referral pathways. |
| May |
Co-organised with the ACA a joint seminar for health professionals:
‘Choosing with Confidence - making informed choices in
purchasing continence products’; published Surgery
for Stress Incontinence leaflet for the public. |
| September |
Continence Awareness Week new leaflet Calling All Men.
Achieved coverage across the UK, including radio broadcasts. |
| November |
Second national conference on the integrated services theme,
Integrated Continence Services: Making it Happen!
Publication of joint RCN/Foundation report Is
Policy Translated into Action? (copies were
mailed to all MPs who had previously been interested in the
1990s Continence Campaign -- about half the house) and folder
with CD on A strategic framework for implementing
integrated continence services.
Director joined a working party to create a Dataset
for continence as a tool to support the National Service Framework
for Older People. |
| December |
Website visitors for the year now over 109,000 (representing
more than 1.3 million hits). |
| 2004 |
|
| February |
Began work, as a member of the Long-Term Medical Conditions
Alliance, in partnership with the NHS Confederation
on a campaign called 17 million reasons --
the number of people with long-term conditions. The had been
to find 3 major things to campaign for, to improve the lives
of these people. The campaign went public in September 2004. |
| April |
Directory of Continence Products, containing
over 3,000 items uploaded to the website: this making accessible
information which in its printed form has become impractical.
Also the Foundation's range of Factsheets were
turned into pdf files and uploaded to the website for easy access. |
| September |
The number of Continence Awareness Week volunteers topped
the 1,000 mark. Theme stress incontinence: Only
When I Laugh leaflet expanded to give new information.
The Week received its first TV mention: on Holby City. |
| November |
Followed up the earlier research by Sue Thomas with a questionnaire
to establish the current state of continence services in relation
to what would constitute a truly integrated service.
Well-attended AGM focussed on the forthcoming development
of NICE guidance on urinary incontinnce, and concerns that
it was proposed to exclude male problems from the exercise:
began lobbying NICE about this. |
| December |
Director spoke about developing integrated continence services
at a conference on Key Advances in the Effective Management
of Stress Urinary Incontinence - this talk was later
expanded into a chapter of a book published in 2005. |
| 2005 |
|
| January |
Unexpected small item of publicity in Bella about our Urgent
Card resulted in hundreds of calls and letters. |
| March |
Launch of NSF for Long-Term Conditions: contained
all the campaigning themes of the 17 Million Reasons Alliance. |
| April |
New version of our Diagnostic Wheel -- which
had previously formed part of the Resource Pack (no longer needed
because of the extent of information on this website. |
| May |
Survey of continence services: topics
were criteria for the issuing of continence products (results
formed part of a poster at the UK Continence Society) and
the waiting time to first appointment at a continence clinic
(results published in our Review).
Enabled online renewal for Friends of the Foundation. |
| September |
Continence Awareness Week theme and leaflet Overactive
Bladder. Now 1,300 supporters with a notable increase
among practice nurses and pharmacists.
Director invited to speak again at the Nursing in
Practice conference. |
| October |
AGM focused on the theme of the threats and cuts to services
resulting from the Department of Health's insistence that Primary
Care Trusts eliminate deficits: letter sent to Patricia Hewitt,
Secretary of State for Health -- considered reply received from
Lord Warner. |
| 2006 |
|
| July |
Director gave an update on the theme of developing integrated
continence services to a conference on Key Advances
in the Effective Management of Overactive Bladder Syndrome. |
| September |
Director's talk this year at the Nursing in Practice
conference proved so popular that she was asked to write it
up as an article -- published in January 2007.
Continence Awareness Week took a broader theme to include
bowel as well as bladder problems. |
| 2007 |
|
| April |
Director an invited speaker for a seminar on integrated continence
services at the professional UK Continence Society
annual conference. |
