RELEASE
18 June 2018
Aged Care Minister and Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt today called on the one in four Australians affected by incontinence to make sure they seek help and receive the support available to live life to the full and learn to "laugh without leaking".
Launching World Continence Week in Australia, Minister Wyatt said the condition affected more than five million people across the country but was a silent burden for too many people.
"The Government is providing in excess of $14 million over four years from 2016-17 until 2019-20 to ensure all Australians have access to the information and support they need to get help for continence problems," said Minister Wyatt.
"That funding has helped the Continence Foundation create a new campaign Laugh without Leaking which takes the larrikin approach to help more Australians get past any embarrassment and seek help.
"I believe this rather irreverent take will get people with continence issues to realise they are not alone, and motivate them to talk to their doctor or call the National Continence Helpline."
Minister Wyatt said there was a lot that could be done to treat continence problems.
"Not only can people better manage the condition, it can even be cured," said Minister Wyatt.
"The assistance isn’t limited to medical advice - one of the innovations is the very useful map of public toilets freely available online and via mobile phone app.
"Knowing you can easily and quickly locate one of 19,000 loos listed across the country can help give people back their confidence, independence and freedom."
To date, there have been more 1.5 million downloads of the app and the website map is visited more than 800,000 times a year.
World Continence Week, from June 18 to 24, includes more than 200 events, talks, activities, displays and performances across the country to help de-stigmatise incontinence and encourage people to share their stories as ‘toilet humour’ and get treatment.
In Canberra, the Continence Foundation is encouraging people to learn about the Public Toilet map and share a selfie with the "Aussie outdoor dunny" on display at the National General Assembly of Local Government, National Convention Centre from Sunday 17 June to Wednesday 20 June.
For information on continence, see http://www.continence.org.au/ The National Continence Helpline is 1800 33 00 66.
The National Public Toilet Map is available online, along with apps available for Apple and Android mobile devices.
Authorised by Ken Wyatt AM, MP, Member for Hasluck. ---
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