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Support for dealing with incontinence
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 10:38 am 
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Padded53 wrote:
NorthShoreAdam wrote:
If you're in the checkout line at the grocery store with a bag of Depend Underwear or Depend Briefs...does that really put you at ease that your incontinence will remain private? I don't think so as everyone knows Depend is adult diapers. I'm hearing a little of both sides as to whether or not having Briefs or Underwear on the bags themselves is actually helpful to people's own ego and pride. if it helps people not be as timid at starting to use them or feel as "old" when using them, then I'm all for keeping "Briefs" and "Underwear" on the package instead of "Diapers" and "Pullups".

Adam: Your statement really brings up a very interesting psychological point. When someone puts a bag of Depends up on the checkout counter pretty much everybody that sees them will instantly think "Diapers!", but out loud (and on TV) everyone will say Depends/briefs/underwear. Why, I think it's that deeply ingrained stigma in virtually everyones mind about the word Diaper. It's funny that what people think, and what they will actually say, can be two different things. That's why even though everyone knows what they are it's more politically correct, and less of an impact to the purchaser's ego, to print on the package something like pull-up or tape-up brief rather than that "awful" word. Hey, marking the packages and writing the advertisements this way might eliminate all of that hate mail you get too.


It certainly would eliminate the hate-email if we never used the word diapers anywhere. But we know for sure that will make it very difficult for people to find our products and also won't help people looking for diapers for the 1st time to figure out difference between briefs and underwear. Almost all people searching about this for the first time, search for "adult diapers" or "Adult pullups" or some combination of those words. We really want to help people find the products they need even easier and not confuse them more than they already are. It's really hard to shop with the euphemisms in the way. Then, many people pick the wrong style and get very frustrated and decide to give up and just "cope" without absorbent products for much longer.

The second question I have about never using "diapers" is...doesn't that just further reinforce the unnecessary stereotypes that "diapers are just for babies" and "diapers are dirty,..." and "it's degrading to talk about someone needing diapers". My view is that while it's nobody's business what underwear we all wear, it would greatly reduce the overall anxiety and stigma with dealing with incontinence if doctors and nurses and friends and family did not have these stereotypes and could say to someone that is coping, "So what, diapers are just underwear and their not just for babies...almost everyone needs some help at some point or another." We haven't made any progress in the last 30 years with getting people to seek medical advice about incontinence by keeping it a secret that many need diapers, so we do need to find something to do differently so we don't have so many millions of people staying at home or altering their life to stay near a bathroom.


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PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:41 pm 
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NorthShoreAdam wrote:
The second question I have about never using "diapers" is...doesn't that just further reinforce the unnecessary stereotypes that "diapers are just for babies" and "diapers are dirty,..." and "it's degrading to talk about someone needing diapers". My view is that while it's nobody's business what underwear we all wear, it would greatly reduce the overall anxiety and stigma with dealing with incontinence if doctors and nurses and friends and family did not have these stereotypes and could say to someone that is coping, "So what, diapers are just underwear and their not just for babies...almost everyone needs some help at some point or another." We haven't made any progress in the last 30 years with getting people to seek medical advice about incontinence by keeping it a secret that many need diapers, so we do need to find something to do differently so we don't have so many millions of people staying at home or altering their life to stay near a bathroom.


It's interesting to me that the same medical professionals we want people to seek advice from are, seemingly, on the front-line of perpetuating the stigma associated with diapers by their refusal to use the term. Maybe we need to start with the medical profession if we want to change the stigma?

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PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 5:28 pm 
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5bugles wrote:
NorthShoreAdam wrote:
The second question I have about never using "diapers" is...doesn't that just further reinforce the unnecessary stereotypes that "diapers are just for babies" and "diapers are dirty,..." and "it's degrading to talk about someone needing diapers". My view is that while it's nobody's business what underwear we all wear, it would greatly reduce the overall anxiety and stigma with dealing with incontinence if doctors and nurses and friends and family did not have these stereotypes and could say to someone that is coping, "So what, diapers are just underwear and their not just for babies...almost everyone needs some help at some point or another." We haven't made any progress in the last 30 years with getting people to seek medical advice about incontinence by keeping it a secret that many need diapers, so we do need to find something to do differently so we don't have so many millions of people staying at home or altering their life to stay near a bathroom.


It's interesting to me that the same medical professionals we want people to seek advice from are, seemingly, on the front-line of perpetuating the stigma associated with diapers by their refusal to use the term. Maybe we need to start with the medical profession if we want to change the stigma?


Yes, bu they will only change if they see solid data, approved by their own experts, that their current approach is not helping. The challenge is finding the right team of psychologists and urologists, etc...willing to do new studies that collect this data in a scientific manner that can be published in respected journals, etc... Not many are willing to be the one to tell generations of nurses that their approach was not all the helpful in the end. We also need to have evidence to provide to pediatricians and parenting "experts" so they can advise parents not to say "diapers are just for babies" to their children which just imprints this stigma for a new generation. I'm already reaching out to many of the respected experts who may be willing to update their studies with a more modern approach and make recommendations. All this great feedback is giving me lots of ideas of how to structure any new studies.

We're also brainstorming lots of ideas on how to "show" both sides (medical and patients) what the other side is thinking, even without published papers. There are ways to start raising the questions that may get them thinking a little more broader about how they may contribute to the taboo and how they are critical to changing the way we view diapers and incontinence in society.


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PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:44 pm 
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Maybe start with a write up in your northshore online blog or something? Its something a lot of people read I think. Or maybe it's just me. :)


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2019 12:40 am 
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justej wrote:
Maybe start with a write up in your northshore online blog or something? Its something a lot of people read I think. Or maybe it's just me. :)


Certainly glad to know someone is reading the blog! 8-) Our team does work very hard on producing good blog posts.

We will definitely start working these issues into our blog posts. However, that alone will do nothing to sway the healthcare community. They will always just write us off as trying to sell more diapers...


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2019 1:53 pm 
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Very true. I was just thinking of ways to make non-professionals more comfortable with the term. My primary care flat out calls them diapers while my urologist skirts around the issue and says pull ups or pull on underwear (which I primarily use tabbed diapers and use pull ups for small times in between wearing tabbed) so those terms dont even match what I wear. When writing my prescription they first put "depend pull ups" and I had to correct them. My home health aide calls them diapers as well. The many times that I was in the hospital for surgeries and whatnot most nurses just avoided the word altogether. And it really shows with the medical industries phobia of diapers that some hospitals dont even provide them. It's a shame


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:15 pm 
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justej wrote:
Very true. I was just thinking of ways to make non-professionals more comfortable with the term. My primary care flat out calls them diapers while my urologist skirts around the issue and says pull ups or pull on underwear (which I primarily use tabbed diapers and use pull ups for small times in between wearing tabbed) so those terms dont even match what I wear. When writing my prescription they first put "depend pull ups" and I had to correct them. My home health aide calls them diapers as well. The many times that I was in the hospital for surgeries and whatnot most nurses just avoided the word altogether. And it really shows with the medical industries phobia of diapers that some hospitals dont even provide them. It's a shame


Yes, I believe it's one of the first things they teach nurses...never to use the word diapers because it is degrading to patients...

Obviously, I'm not a big fan of that approach, but every nurse for the last few decades at least has been taught this so they feel very passionately that they are right about this approach.


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 25, 2019 1:48 am 
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Adam,
You can call them whatever you want. I will still keep buying them from you. It matters not to me what you have to call them for business reasons.

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 25, 2019 2:28 am 
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This best is to buy online. Has to be in my case as store nappies here generally suck.

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PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2019 9:05 pm 
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Hey all,
Reading this post with interest. First I'd like to say thank you to Adam for being so actively involved. I buy Supreme Lite for overnight bedwetting. For me, it is the (((perfect))) diaper.
I personally don't mind the "D" word. I don't tell everybody I know that I wear them, but I have accepted it.
So, if we have to be politically correct to not offend anyone, may I suggest, "disposable, side-closure underwear"? It isn't the "D" word, but is pretty straight forward about the meaning.
I was very happy to see Depends put out the campaign to promote acceptance of incontinence, but it didn't seem to go anywhere and they quit trying.
A possible place to start might be a "ribbon" campaign. Low-key, innocuous, but gets attention. You know, like pink for breast cancer, orange for MS, etc. It'd be a way of introducing the issue, but if someone asks, would the person wearing the "ribbon" be willing to have the conversation, which would most likely be in a public place.
Just a few thoughts.
Thanks again for all that you do, Adam. Great products from a great company.


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