Journal article
Access to dental care and dental ill-health of people with serious mental illness: views of nurses working in mental health settings in Australia
B Happell, C Platania-Phung, D Scott, C Hanley
Australian Journal of Primary Health | CSIRO Publishing | Published : 2014
DOI: 10.1071/PY13044
Abstract
People with serious mental illness experience higher rates of oral and dental health problems than the wider population. Little is known about how dental health is viewed or addressed by nurses working with mental health consumers. This paper presents the views of nurses regarding the nature and severity of dental health problems of consumers with serious mental illness, and how often they provide advice on dental health. Mental health sector nurses (n=643) completed an online survey, including questions on dental and oral health issues of people with serious mental illness. The majority of nurses considered the oral and dental conditions of people with serious mental illness to be worse tha..
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Funding Acknowledgements
The authors thank the mental health nurses for their time and valuable input. Our thanks to the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses, particularly Kim Ryan and Haylie Maylia for their invaluable assistance in distributing the survey. Research Advancement Award Scheme and Merit Grant Scheme of Central Queensland University provided the funding to make this work possible.