ABSTRACT

Clavér, Teija, Jussila Mari & Salo Noora.

A guide to enhance oral health and dental care among people in mental health and substance abuse rehabilitation. 26 p., 1 Appendix. Language: Finnish. Autumn 2017. Diaconia University of Applied Sciences. Degree Programme in Nursing, Option in Nursing.

Degree: Nurse.

Oral health and dental care is an area that is worthwhile paying attention to as it prevents from many ailments such as toothache but also prevents more serious illnesses caused e.g. infections.

A good oral health and dental care is often overlooked within the care environment with a lot of patient groups not getting enough attention. People in mental health and substance abuse rehabilitation are one of them.

The purpose of this study was to produce a guide of oral health and dental care for the personnel and residents of the Jokikoto service home. The aim of the guide was to promote oral health among people in rehabilitation by familiarizing with the good practices of dental care and motivating the residents to take them in use as a part of daily routines. In the beginning, the staff of Jokikoto expressed their concern on how to motivate the residents regarding the oral and dental care. There were many reasons in the background. However, the aim was at least to support the staff and give them further tools to encourage the residents to look after their oral and dental hygiene.

The guide cover the information on the daily mouth and dental hygiene and presents the current dental care products and equipment and describes the most common mouth and dental ailments and instructions on how to prevent them. Furthermore, the guide describes the effects on some psychological symptoms to oral and dental health and the detrimental effects on some psyche medication, tobacco and alcohol/drug substances.

As a result of the study can be stated that the project provided challenges. In the beginning, the awareness of the fact that to achieve real concrete results within the patient group might be difficult appeared to be true. Collecting the material for the study was challenging, because a few research on the subject were done and hardly any statistical data was available. However, for the process of the study it was important the interest showed towards the subject within the care community and especially, in the beginning how easily the co-operating partner was established. The produced guide would be a tool in the rehabilitation.

Keywords: mental and substance abuse rehabilitation, oral and dental health