The Association for Relief of Incontinence (GIH) was founded in November 1987 and is a non-profit organisation. It is a scientific organisation whose members are medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and affected persons.
The Association is supported by firms that have special experience in the field of diagnostics and medical treatment of incontinence. They form the supporting group of the Association.
The board consists of representatives from the scientific community who work with incontinent patients such as urologists, gynaecologists, geriatric experts, neurologists, surgeons, nurses and pharmacists. Their work is done entirely on a voluntary basis.
The primary goal of the Association is to promote measures for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of incontinence. Through widespread information the GIH aims to break the taboo surrounding the illness, offers help and counsel to patients and their families, and coordinates research, teaching, and praxis so as to assure optimal treatment.
How does the GIH work?
The GIH regularly sends out information brochures, it organises regional symposia for medical personnel and patients, as well as an annual National Congress.
The GIH would gladly send you a free information brochure containing the following information:
- bladder and bowel incontinence
- bladder incontinence in children
- physical therapies
- a listing of counselling offices
- a listing of self-help groups
- a bibliography
- information about different
remedies
Detailed questions pertaining to the illness are of course always answered by medical doctors.
The GIH had many activities this year including the WHO Consensus Conference (Bonn, August 20-21, 1997) with the scope:
"100 million elderly men and women are affected by urinary incontinence. It is now time that the public recognized this issue and that this pathology is addressed on a global scale."
The aim of this conference is to present our current knowledge, and to search for new ways of helping and treating these patients, to enable them to be reintegrated into social life.
We have also held an International Symposium on Voiding Disorders in the Elderly (Kassel, August 21-23, 1997).
We now have a newspaper for our members: the "GIH aktuell" appears four times a year and covers also news from the Medizinische Gesellschaft fŸr Inkontinenzhilfe in Austria.
Christa Thiel