How to Navigate from Childhood to being an Independent Adult in SCI Care

Send us Fan Mail'It’s about making sure that the family can see how that's going to fit in with their child for the here and now, but also I'm very much thinking I've got to hand this child on to adult services with two good kidneys. It's about not just the continence, but keeping the kidneys healthy into adulthood.' – Dr Allison Graham Welcome to our next podcast instalment as we continue to cover the topics that matter within the care of SCI, engaging experts from all over the world.  In this episode host Catharina Cziczkat of Wellspect, Germany is joined by Jens Larsson from Skånes University Hospital SUS, Sweden and Dr Allison Graham of Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, UK, to discuss the challenges of bowel and bladder care in patients navigating from childhood to becoming independent teenagers and adults. What’s the best way to go about this when dealing with sensitive areas such as catheterisation? To help us, our panel share their knowledge and experience, explaining how we make the transition to adult services workable for families with children in need of bladder and bowel management. What can we do to help teenagers to become independent, removing the responsibility from parents and placing this onto themselves? How do we motivate them? Building relationships and trust with families is key to achieving better quality of life in the short term, as well as working towards improving function and kidney health in the long-term. The ultimate goal is to ensure the transition from child to teenager is as smooth as possible, giving patients the tools and knowledge to empower them whilst avoiding complications.  'It's an embarrassing subject and, It's an area that you don't as a child, or even as a parent want to talk about. But you need to build that confidence with the family and, make them comfortable in talking to you about it as well. That's something I think is important, to give the families and the child as much information as possible.' ~ Jens Larsson Our panellists wholeheartedly agree that by working closely with the child's family whilst directly involving the child, treating our patients as individuals, and sharing all the available information, the process can be effectively managed, ensuring the transition from child to young adult to an independent adult is successful. Contact us directly with any questions or comments at [email protected]. You can also join the conversation on social media @ISCoSMeetings and @WellspectHC. And we hope to see many of you in person at the ISCoS 61st Annual Scientific Meeting this September in Vancouver.If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate, review and subscribe with the podcast provider of your choice. This show is brought to you by ISCoS - you can follow us on Twitter @iscosmeetings, produced and directed by Heather Pownall of Heather's Media Hub @heathershub*The opinions of our host and guests are their own.The opinions of our host and guests are their own; ISCoS does not endorse any individual viewpoints, given products or companies. You can follow us on Twitter and LinkedInContact us directly with any questions or comments at [email protected]