technology
Seat
of dignity
T
Bidets with
remote
controls and
a reworked
approach to
managing
incontinence
may help
improve
quality of life
for residents.
Meredith
Gresham
interviewed by
Dallas Bastian
he role smart bidets may play in the future of
healthcare was explored during a presentation
at the recent Australian Healthcare Week 2016,
held at Australian Technology Park in Sydney.
Meredith Gresham, occupational therapist
and a senior consultant (research and design) in
HammondCare’s Dementia Centre, discussed the
technology’s cost-effectiveness and the impact it can
have on a person’s dignity and wellbeing. Gresham is
investigating its use among people with incontinence.
Here, Gresham speaks with Aged Care Insite about the
early findings from her research, including the impact
the technology may have on people with cognitive
impairment and those with spinal cord injuries.
ACI: You presented on the emergence of smart
bidets in the 21st century. What are smart bidets?
MG: The bidets I’m looking at, the so-called smart
bidets, are electronic pieces of equipment that
replace the ordinary toilet seat. They have two
retractable self-cleaning nozzles, for front and
rear water sprays. They have variable pressure and
temperature to adjust cleaning to how you want it.
They also have a pulsate [setting, and you can switch
their aim to] cover a greater area.
You’re researching the use of bidet technology
in the management of incontinence. What is that
research exploring?
I’m not looking at incontinence per se, but often the
sequelae of incontinence. Incontinence can often be
managed well, but what we haven’t got any research
about, and little knowledge about, is the fundamental
task of how to clean up afterwards. So my research is
looking at how we clean up properly and whether the
bidet affects how we may manage incontinence. I’m
42 agedcareinsite.com.au
also looking at anecdotal information – data from care
workers and nursing aides in nursing homes – about
how the bidet affects their management of residents
with incontinence.
What are some of your early findings?
I did a feasibility study [that involved] the staff of
Hammond Care at Woy Woy recording more than
1300 episodes of using the bidet with toileting. They
found they didn’t need to do anything else [but use
the bidet] in 79 per cent of cases after the resident had
voided their bowels. They didn’t need to do anything
else in 94 per cent of cases after just voiding bladder.
So it’s fair to say the bidet is pretty successful.
We were testing with residents who had dementia;
these were residents who had lost the ability to
understand what to do to successfully clean themselves
after voiding. We had a five-point scale [for how
well residents liked the experience] and two staff
rated residents after observing them quite closely with