The CPC workshop, “Current Initiatives for Increasing Continence Awareness” was held during the ICS Meeting on August 31, 2005 Montreal, Canada. The program included three speakers and attracted over 70 attendees.

Dr. Judith Wardle, Director of the Continence Foundation of UK, presented information on the European Patient Association Network. This is a global initiative that focuses on supporting patient adversary groups currently working in the area of overactive bladder management to increase awareness, education and proper treatment of overactive bladder. This group started meeting in March 2004 with support from Pfizer. The Chair of this group is Dr. Francois Haab, France. Participation from CPC includes 5-6 European countries. Meetings have included discussions on ways to decrease barriers amongst professionals and patients as well as to increase awareness amongst these groups. The goal is to develop a plan to influence legislature in each individual country. Another objective is to find common communication strategies for increasing continence awareness. Meeting objectives of this group are to organize a continence event mostly among European countries in 2006. This may take the structure of an actual bladder health week or “World Continence Day.”

The 2nd presenter was Frankie Bates who represented the Canadian Continence Foundation, the host country of the ICS. She discussed the structure of the Canadian Foundation and ongoing activities being conducted by the association including additions to the web site, information sheets, newsletters, and guidelines on urinary incontinence for healthcare professionals, models of continence care. In addition, the Canadian Continence Foundation is providing credit courses for family physicians with an ultimate goal to have “incontinence awareness month.” The working models for continence care included urban academic models, continence care in small cities and in the rural settings. Ms. Bates presented results of a physician’s survey which is similar to other surveys conducted around the world. Most physicians felt that they received inadequate training about pelvic floor dysfunction and urinary incontinence. Because of this inadequate training, fewer than 25% would ask patients about an incontinence problem. One of the messages of their “Bladder Health Week” is to increase awareness amongst patients and professionals. Ms. Bates also presented a summary of another global initiative which is the Patient Advocacy Group. This is a global initiative that focuses on supporting advocacy groups in raising awareness campaigns targeting policy makers and healthcare professionals on the topic of stress urinary incontinence. This advocacy group has provided network and information sharing amongst CPC Associations in 11 countries (EU, Mexico and Canada). The patient advocacy group is sponsored by Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim. The chairman of this group is Dr. David Fonder from Australia. In the past year they have developed a position paper on incontinence and they are currently conducting surveys in several countries.

The final speaker of the workshop was Diane Newman who is the Chair of the Continence Promotion Committee of the ICS. She presented the current state of the organizations which include 47 organizations in 33 countries. This is an increase since last year. Newly added (2005) organizations include Mexico, Slovakia and Spain. She presented the current organizations of the CPC. Ms. Newman suggested that the CPC collaborate with the newly formed World Federation of Incontinent Patients (WFIP) whose launch meeting was held in March 2005 in Rome.

As Chair of the CPC, she is promoting a new initiative that involves a “Bladder Health Campaign” that will be called “Continence” or “Bladder Health” Campaign for 2006. Her goal is to increase awareness at the New Zealand ICS meeting next November.

A discussion was held concerning the misunderstanding of the ICS Board about the time of the allotted time for the CPC workshop at the ICS annual meeting. This workshop is separate from the actual CPC Committee meeting.

A future plan for the CPC is collaboration with the World Federation of Incontinence Patients. Hopefully the form of this collaboration will evolve over the next year.

Ms Newman led a discussion about member’s interest in sponsoring a Public Forum yearly in conjunction with the annual ICS meeting. The public would be invited to talks about incontinence. Speakers would include IC members. This will increase continence awareness and hopefully increase the profile of the CPC and the ICS. This forum would be initially held at the end of the yearly ICS meeting. The goal would be to hold the first Public Forum at the end of the 2007 ICS in Rotterdam. In 2008, this Public Forum will be held at the International Consultation on Incontinence in Paris. Ms Newman shared with workshop attendees the positive reaction of the ICS Board to such an event. The audience expressed enthusiasm for this event. The specifics of this event will be worked out over the next year.

Ms Newman thanked Eli Lilly & Boehringer Ingelheim for providing refreshments for this workshop. She also acknowledged SCA’s continued support of the CPC website.

Respectfully submitted,

Diane Newman

Chair Continence Promotion Committee