Author: padproject_h1dioa

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An International Multistakeholder Workshop: Register now!

CO-CREATING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HOLISTICALLY SUSTAINABLE CONTINENCE CARE

A wooden doll sitting on the top of a pile of incontinence pads, with a picture of a landfill in the background

 

TISCARE2022 is an international multistakeholder workshop, organized by the Pad Project together with the World Federation for Incontinence and Pelvic Problems (WFIPP), at Tampere University 25-26 April 2022.

 

We bring together continence care experts in social, political, economic and health sciences, put them in the same table with continence technology specialists and engineers, experts in urban planning, architecture, waste management, and circular economy, as well as patient organizations, health professionals, and the industry, with  the aim to define, what the term “sustainable continence care” means.

The event evolves around parallel workshops, where the participants craft a shared understanding of what sustainable continence care.

In the workshops, the participants produce open access data on expert visions on sustainable future in continence care. The data will be archived after the event, so the event participants as well as others can utilise it freely for purposes of research, teaching, and innovation.

The registration for the event is now open, and the tickets will go on a first-come-first-serve basis. Book your place now!

The registration fees vary from 0 euros (patients and patient organisations) to 70 euros (regular participants) to  1,000-2,000 euros (companies).

Event homesite: https://events.tuni.fi/tiscare2022/

 

 

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Shadowing the shadows of the ecowelfare state: Listening to the adult incontinence pads’ parlance in the Finnish welfare state

“The ecowelfare state should be a welfare state designed
for leaking bodies.”

The first research findings published

The Pad Project team has just published its fist research results, as part of a Special Issue that deals with the ecowelfare state.

The open access article is titles “Shadowing the shadows of the ecowelfare state: Listening to the adult incontinence
pads’ parlance in the Finnish welfare state”.

The article is written in Finnish, but you can find the English abstract below. (And perhaps a certain search engine’s translation tools cam help you read the contents, too, even if you do not read Finnish.

Abstract

Adult incontinence, both urinary and faecal, are common conditions. Incontinence, however,
and the pads utilised for its management, are silenced. Like waste in the welfare state, they
are in the shadows of wellbeing and overshadowed by it. Various behavioural norms make
them invisible and unspeakable: something that should not disturb the administrative order.

Pad waste is doubly in the shadows. The incontinence pads thus mark the most silenced
corners of the welfare state. When envisioning the ecowelfare state, mapping such silences
is vital. In an ecowelfare state, ecologically sustainable good life must be guaranteed for all
bodies, also those unable to control their bladder or bowels.

In this article, we explore
the administrative discourses and silences around incontinence pads. Methodologically, the
article combines multi-sited ethnography with feminist science and technology studies and
Derridean deconstruction, to sketch potential trajectories towards the ecowelfare state
from the viewpoint of incontinence.

Drawing on data on the municipal administration of the
Finnish pad economy, we show how the ecowelfare state should be a welfare state designed
for leaking bodies. This requires adequate continence care, cure, prevention and rehabilitation,
as well as water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructures, which sewage systems alone
do not solve.

Keywords:

adult diaper, deconstruction, ecowelfare state, incontinence

 

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International ethical guidance for continence care of older adults published: The Pad Project participated in the work

 

The PI of the Pad Project, Tiina Vaittinen, partipated in the International Continence Society Ethical Committee work in writing a white paper on ethical considerations in older adults with urinary incontinence.

The white paper was published in Neurourology & Urodynamics, and it can be freely downloaded from the below link, which leads to the ICS news on the publication.

https://www.ics.org/news/1255

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Will we ever see incontinence products made from 100% renewable materials?

Incontinence pads are also about forest industry

Forest industry may not be the first thing to associate with something as intimately embodied as incontinence care.

Producing the fluff to the pads’ absorbent layers, it is, however, a key industry in the production of the pads.

While solving the question of  sustainable land usage remains key for the sustainability of forest industry, it may also provide solutions for a more sustainable future for adult incontinence care.

Along with a range of experts from other fields, our project’s PI, Tiina Vaittinen, was interviewed for this podcast, produced by Stora Enso, which asks:

Will we ever see incontinence products made from 100% renewable materials?

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN