Wishing you all a very happy new year! To kick off 2020 we are running a new competition to win a £30 Amazon gift card. The theme for this competition is Oral Care – Yay 😊

A report from the Care Quality Commission, highlights that many people in care homes in England are not getting good oral health care.

The CQC’s review of 100 care homes found:

73% of care plans only partly covered or did not cover oral health at all
52% of care homes don’t even have an oral health plan for resident
47% of staff have no oral care training
Only in 1 in 100people with a disability or mobility problems are getting access to domiciliary care.

We are backing CQC’s calls for swift implementation of NICE guidelines across all care settings for comprehensive training and appropriate commissioning, underpinned by robust needs assessment to ensure access to services for those who need it most, in the right place at the right time, including mainstream, emergency, and domiciliary care. Whilst we acknowledge that statistics will vary to this in the community, oral healthcare still needs a light shining on it in our part of the sector too.

Can you confidently answer these questions?

How often do your clients brush their teeth? (if they have them)
Do you understand the direct correlation between oral health and overall health? Did you know that poor oral care can compromise other health conditions such as diabetes, aspiration pneumonia and cardiovascular disease? It can also stop medications from absorbing properly.
Are you confident to provide: dry mouth care, ulcer care and denture care?
Do you know your responsibilities as a carer for your clients oral health care needs?

If not then we’d strongly suggest logging into your learning account and enter our January learning competition.

To win the £30 Amazon voucher all you need to do is complete the oral care training course on care skills academy (and pass it of course). We will then collate all of the names of staff who have completed the course and you will be entered into a draw. The winner will be chosen on Friday 31^st January. You have until Wednesday 29^th to enter.

Tracey should have enrolled you all onto the course. If you are not enrolled please give her a call. Oral care training is now considered part of the mandatory suite of courses so my suggestion is to get it done while we have this lovely little competition on offer. Win win!

Good luck to all who enter! Any questions just give one of us a call.