ASBAH has launched a free continence card to help service users access toilet facilities more easily.
The credit card-size laminated card, entitled Need to Go, has ASBAH’s Helpline information on one side, and the simple message, “Please Help. The person holding this card has spina bifida and needs to use the toilet urgently” on the reverse.
Hopefully the cards will make it easier for service users to approach staff in stores and shops which don’t have toilet facilities available to the public.
Helpline and Information Service manager Linda Lewis said: “The Continence Foundation have offered a similar card for some time and one was recently launched by the MS Society.
“We always directed callers requiring a card to these organisations, until one caller asked why ASBAH didn’t produce one themselves?, which was a very good question.”
Production of the ‘Need to Go’ card was made possible through Big Lottery funding for the Helpline and Information Service. The card is available free of charge but anyone requesting one will need to register their contact details
with ASBAH so they can be logged on the database,
for validation purposes.
Linda added: “People with spina bifida can have continence issues and need to use the toilet at regular intervals. Having one of our cards should help them to access a toilet more easily.
“Some people are embarrassed about having to explain their urgency so hopefully the cards will make their lives easier and give them the confidence to go out and about more often.”
Anyone wishing to have a ‘Need to Go’ card should call the Helpline on 0845 450 7755 (local rate call) or email: helpline@asbah.org. Alternatively you can write to Helpline, ASBAH House, 42 Park Road, Peterborough, PE1 2UQ.
