ABSTRACT
People with dementia present us with two types of challenge, behavioural deficits and behavioural excesses. Perversely, traditional thinking on dementia promotes the health-built environment axis as being the most influential, when it has the least to offer in terms of resolution. Instead, people wish those with dementia to utilise their remaining abilities and to receive assistance to help them complete actions they have initiated. The goal is assisted independence. As a result of adjusting and extending the time between toileting prompts so that voiding is postponed, a new pattern of predictable micturition is established which enables the person with dementia to remain dry, as well as avoiding fruitless journeys to the toilet. If people do, the likelihood is that sedatives, anti-libidinal drugs and confinement, allied to expressions of disgust, will continue to be employed on the 'battlefield of sexuality and dementia' - actions designed to make us feel comfortable.
