Carers and dental health in NSW aged care facilities

Objectives: To determine the oral health-related background and characteristics in carers in Aged Care Facilities (ACFs) in NSW. Methods: Questionnaires were mailed with reply-paid envelopes to all NSW ACF's (406) requesting completion by a carer at their facility with non-responders receiving a second mail. The 23-item questionnaire, encoded for confidentiality, collected information on carer characteristics, oral care in the facility, residents' oral health status and barriers to carers' delivery of oral care. Percentages have been used to analyse the data. Results: Of the 406 questionnaires posted, 211 were completed, a response rate of 51.97%, with 91.87% of carers being female mostly in the 40-50 and >50 age groups, 39.52% and 35.71% respectively. Oral health training had been received by 66.67% of carers of which half received in-house training. Although 73.16% thought that their training was adequate, 6 areas of further training were identified by greater than half of the carers. Greater than 90% of carers reported assisting residents in all aspects of cleaning and maintaining teeth/dentures although a few carers (25.73%) reported that they were not given enough time for oral health duties. An inability to communicate with residents was seen as the most frequent barrier to overall oral health care delivery. Almost all carers reported the availability of toothpaste/denture cleaner, tooth/denture brushes and mouth rinses, whilst few reported other oral care products such as disclosing tablets (25.12%), mouth props (18.48%) or biotene products (9.48%). Conclusion: Oral health education for carers in ACFs was equally divided between in-house, formal and no training with carers nominating several areas for training improvement. As carers provide almost all of the oral health care for residents for whom communication is a considerable problem, emphasis needs to be placed on providing training in geriatric dental care techniques and products. Supported by ADRF Inc.