#SeriousSh1t campaign – six months on

The response to our #SeriousSh1t campaign has been hugely positive, and we’ve been delighted to receive many offers of support.

Bowel care in medical settings for people with a spinal cord injury has been a serious issue for a long time, and we regularly support people whose bowel care support is well below the standard a patient should expect. This is why we launched the ‘This is #Serioussh1t’ campaign at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Spinal Cord Injury meeting in March 2023. It’s important to emphasise that we’re not blaming any individual nurses or hospitals for the current situation, and are very keen to work with healthcare providers and healthcare professionals to bring about the long overdue and much-needed change required.

The response to the campaign has been hugely positive, and we’ve been delighted to receive many offers of support. As a result, we’ve been able to engage with a host of key stakeholders, including NHS England, the Royal College of Nursing, the Nursing & Midwifery Council, the All-Wales Continence Forum, the Bowel Care Forum and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Bladder & Bowel Continence Care.

We have also spoken with individual healthcare professionals and other charities, and convened three very successful workshops for our business partners & members in England and Wales, and for healthcare professionals from across the UK.

As the campaign continues to develop, we are determined to work collaboratively to grow the awareness and support that will lead to systemic and long-lasting change. To that end, we are planning to convene a Round Table event in 2024, bringing all the key stakeholders together to establish how to improve and solve the issues with bowel care in medical settings.

We are continuing to encourage all spinal cord injured people to complete an Emergency Care Plan  as part of the campaign, and more information about the campaign itself is available on our website .

Thank you for your continued support.