Lisa Noble and April Howie are Manager and Deputy Manager at Springbank Care Home, (part of Spellman Care), in Silsden, West Yorkshire. Recently, Lisa and April have put together their own initiative to improve the oral health of their residents.
The Smiling Matters initiative aims to raise awareness of good oral hygiene amongst residents, family members and staff at the home. The initiative was introduced due to the current crisis in the NHS. According to the Telegraph and Argus (T&A), only three dentist surgeries in the whole Bradford District are currently accepting new NHS patients (5.5%). The T&A also went on to say that “more than half of older adults who live in care homes have tooth decay, compared to 40% of over 75s who do not live in care homes”. Care home residents do not currently receive any financial support for routine dental check-ups, with support only becoming available from the emergency dentist once a problem arises. Smiling Matters aims to provide a small relief to residents who cannot afford a private dentist, by going above and beyond to look after their teeth, reducing the number of emergency dentist visits required.
Lisa Noble, Home Manager said… “The Care Quality Commission expects registered managers to take account of nationally recognised guidance, including guidance from NICE.
Evidence about how you support residents to maintain good oral health will help you demonstrate that your service is both effective and responsive.
So, how do we at Springbank achieve this? Communication and Training are the key elements for care staff. As Managers, it is our duty to source that Training to enable colleagues to offer effective assistance to the people we care for. The first stumbling we encountered was that the training isn’t out there. Initially, we approached Skills for Care, who pointed us in the direction of Webinar’s and online training. We also approached private dentists for in-house training, and finally, the Community Dental service who are in the process of designing an in house-training session.
At Springbank, we felt we needed to act now, hence the creation of Smiling Matters.”
Smiling Matters introduced ‘Oral Hygiene Champions’ to the home, whose responsibility it is to make other carers, residents, and family members aware of the importance of Oral Hygiene. To ensure that the whole team is working towards improving residents’ oral health, all staff members were offered the opportunity to be an ‘Oral Hygiene Champion’ including members of the admin team, whose role it is to pass their knowledge on to new starters.
On Wednesday 4th October, Lisa and April held a ‘Smiling Matters’ event to raise awareness of good oral hygiene. The event was combined with a MacMillan Coffee Morning, to bring an aspect of fun to the learning. Staff members from all communities in the home visited the event, to learn more about Oral Health and the resources available to them to help improve residents’ oral wellbeing.
The home has improved how they record information in their Oral Care Plan, to further assist carers in continually monitoring residents’ oral health. The care plan is accessed via mobile-phone-like devices, to allow carers to immediately update the plan with the most recent and detailed information. Within the plan, a photo chart shows examples of teeth in different conditions, with a scale next to the photos. This allows staff to accurately describe the condition of a resident’s teeth based on examples.
