Bladder and Bowel Confidence (BABCON)

The Bladder and Bowel CONfidence Health Integration Team (BABCON HIT) aims to promote bladder and bowel continence for all in Bristol and the surrounding area.

Leakage from the bladder and bowel that cannot be controlled by individuals of all ages is more widespread than is often recognised.

• In the UK, over 14 million people experience bladder control problems and 6.5 million have bowel control difficulties.
• There are more than 900,000 children with continence conditions at any time.

These are the figures that we know about but there are likely to be many more people with symptoms who do not admit it as we do not tend to talk about it. Often people live with bladder and bowel control issues as they believe nothing can be done to improve their symptoms. However, advice and education can help people to improve their symptoms, cure them or learn to live as well as they can.

BABCON plan to achieve its aims through:

• enabling people to improve their symptoms through self-help,
• improving continence services including social care, community services, and inpatient hospital care,
• promoting continence education for the public and healthcare staff,
• undertaking high quality research and innovation to drive change,
• exploring the impact of environmental factors on people with bladder and bowel symptoms,
• challenging beliefs about incontinence.