Should Carers Be Expected To Insert Tampons?

[Sarniajoy]

This is another topic on the BBC disability site. I don't think a carer should be required to do this.

[Alexr115]

This is another topic on the BBC disability site. I don't think a carer should be required to do this.

Why?

Aren't paid carers expected to wipe the behinds of their carees, I know the analogy that i've given isn't exactly the same but still the same principal.

I'm no expert on the subject and i'm sure some women will correct me. But without having a tampon inserted or wearing a sanitary towel cant the woman get Toxic Shock Syndrome which can be fatal.

[Guest]

I have no problem with this, is it any different to inserting pessaries or suppositories?

[Guest]

This is another topic on the BBC disability site. I don't think a carer should be required to do this.

Why?

Aren't paid carers expected to wipe the behinds of their carees, I know the analogy that i've given isn't exactly the same but still the same principal.

I'm no expert on the subject and i'm sure some women will correct me. But without having a tampon inserted or wearing a sanitary towel cant the woman get Toxic Shock Syndrome which can be fatal.

The use of tampons was associated some time ago with Toxic Shock Syndrome, I don't know what the thinking on the subject is now, it's no longer newsworthy.

[Sarniajoy]

Tampons can still cause toxic shock, pads don't!

[marie66]

Wouldn't pads be better anyway? that would remove the issue of insertion wouldn't it?
I can't really see any difference in using these or incontinence pads

marie x

[Guest]

It, to me, is a matter of individual choice and surely provision of care is supposed to make life as normal as possible for the individual? People without disabilities take these choices for granted, it doesn't matter whether it's jumping into the car and going to the supermarket or for a drink or the more personal things that able-bodied people do for themselves, they have choice and autonomy, people with disabilities have very limited choice and autonomy. And how can someone choose to become a paid carer and not expect to carry out intimate tasks, it's part of the job. In this case the carer is happy to provide the service and has done so for some time, the agency providing the service isn't.

Until people are in a situation where they have to compromise or do without purely because of disability it's difficult to realise how significant these things can be, the constant erosion of the choices that others take for granted, the loss of autonomy and the knowledge that you are most definitely not an equal citizen but someone whose life is constrained not just by your disability but the attitudes of others, including those with the power to make your life more normal.

[Sarniajoy]

It, to me, is a matter of individual choice and surely provision of care is supposed to make life as normal as possible for the individual? People without disabilities take these choices for granted, it doesn't matter whether it's jumping into the car and going to the supermarket or for a drink or the more personal things that able-bodied people do for themselves, they have choice and autonomy, people with disabilities have very limited choice and autonomy. And how can someone choose to become a paid carer and not expect to carry out intimate tasks, it's part of the job. In this case the carer is happy to provide the service and has done so for some time, the agency providing the service isn't.

Until people are in a situation where they have to compromise or do without purely because of disability it's difficult to realise how significant these things can be, the constant erosion of the choices that others take for granted, the loss of autonomy and the knowledge that you are most definitely not an equal citizen but someone whose life is constrained not just by your disability but the attitudes of others, including those with the power to make your life more normal.

Carers are not nurses and I think expecting them to insert a tampon, which is not essential, is a step too far!

[Guest]

I understand from the post on Ouch that the carer in question had no problem with it. Carers carry out many tasks that were once nursing functions.

Women make choices about their preferences in these matters, should disabled women lose the right to make that choice, or any other for that matter, because they can't do something for themselves? You and I make or made the choice that suited us and our lifestyle when it came to sanitary products, why not the poster on Ouch? Not everyone has a family member to carry out intimate tasks, is wiping bottoms a job for a paid carer, some might prefer to insert a tampon to cleaning up faecal matter, where do we draw the line? Surely issues such as these should be decided between the carer and the cared for, not by some hard and fast rule imposed from above. Until someone experiences disability for themselves I believe that it's often hard to understand the importance of maintaining some sort of choice, continuity and normality in one's life and to have one's preferences respected.

[charles47]

Where it is possible for a person to make a choice, it's reasonable to expect assistance to meet their needs in this way.

But where choices are more difficult to make, pads may well be more appropriate. It's about being comfortable, isn't it?