The Indian Continence Foundation - the beginning Indian Continence Foundation was established in May 98 and it functions as an open society where the membership is open to all-healthcare professionals and general public. Activities of the foundation started immediately in the form of continence advisory clinics, which were held on a two monthly basis. The initial response to these clinics were encouraging and though we had decided to hold these clinics at various places in Bangalore we felt it would be better to have a permanent place to make it easier for patients as well as to generate adequate publicity. These clinics are meant for assessment and advise for patients suffering from incontinence. It is our sincere hope that overtime with adequate funding we will be able to subsidise treatment care for select group of patients. Simultaneously we have brought out several patient information brochures, which is available on request for doctors, care providers and general public. Incontinence in India is still not perceived as a major problem nor is it still a quality of life issue. To stimulate and provide quality information we started a newsletter aimed at medical professionals – ICON, which has been a tremendous success. The inaugural issue of ICON – the official publication of the Indian Continence Foundation came out in May 1999. The second issue was out in November 1999. ICON will cover topics of current interest and important advances for professionals working in the field of Incontinence. It welcomes contributions from all professionals in the field. Both these issues have been very well accepted as a quality publication in the filed of incontinence by the medical community and it has also received appreciation for it’s effective layout. Presently this publication is being distributed free of cost to Urologists, gynecologists, Pediatricians, Neurologists and has a circulation base of 1200. As the focus of the foundation thus far has been on awareness we organised a course on "Current management of Incontinence" for Nurses on 28th & 29th November 1999 at Bangalore. Rev. Dr. Percival Fernandes, Director, St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences inaugurated the course, and the course manual was released by Prof. Joseph Antony. St. John’s Medical College and the Bangalore Kidney Foundation were the institutional co-sponsors. Eighty-two delegates from 17 institutions registered for the course. The course faculty was drawn from several institutions and included Urologists, Neurologists & Nurses. The course was divided into three parts – Lectures, Video demonstrations and hands-on Workshops. There were 14 Lectures taking them through various aspects of urinary and fecal incontinence. Interactive video demonstrations covered the following areas: Intermittent
catheterisation Were meant for the participants to have well defined knowledge in common problems of incontinent sufferers. Participants demonstrated great inquisitiveness during these sessions and drew the faculty out on many specific and finer points. This set the tone for the hands-on workshops in the following areas: Bladder charting –
including the different types of charts presently available The final session was devoted to a problem-solving session based on actual clinical cases. Participants were divided into batches and each batch was given a case history and the voiding Diary of that patient. Given a day in advance, these were discussed by the groups. In each instance, the group was asked to identify the issues involved and present a problem-based plan for Management. This was presented to the peers, who discussed each issue and gave their own Opinions. A panel of Urologists who rounded off each case with their summations moderated the Session. In their replies to the response form questions, the delegates critically acclaimed the course and overwhelmingly indicated their desire to attend more such courses. Prof. H.K. Nagaraj, President-elect of the Urological Society of India (Southern Zone chapter) awarded Certificates of Appreciation to the faculty. Dr. P. Vijayan, President of the Bangalore Urological Society gave away the Course certificates. We have had several requests for holding a similar course for doctors practicing incontinence. The course was facilitated by the tremendous inputs – both intellectual and material - from the Society for Continence, Singapore, and educational grants from APCAB and Pharmacia & Upjohn (India).
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