Film for dental professionals - patients with dementia

A thought-provoking new film aimed at dental professionals to raise awareness of the issues faced by patients with dementia when attending a dental appointment has been launched recently by Health Education England. Sir Keith Pearson, HEE Chair launched the film during a visit to the dental team at Health Education Thames Valley who worked with Wessex Dental team on producing the film. The film looks at the process of attending a dental appointment through the eyes of a dementia sufferer, highlighting just how daunting the whole process can be.

It will be a useful learning tool for dental teams working in general practice and will challenge them to think about how they deal with people who suffer from this condition. It highlights the crucial role played by staff, especially receptionists and dental nurses in supporting vulnerable patients. It has been inspired by an award winning series of films called “Barbara’s Story” that was developed to highlight issues around caring for people with dementia in an acute hospital. The film was made on location at surgery of Satnam Moonga. Satnam is the Thames Valley Local Dental Professional Network Chair and who generously allowed use of his surgery in Princes Risborough.

Sir Keith Pearson said:

The film gives us a real insight into just how confusing attending a dentist appointment can be for someone with dementia. Figures show that 800,000 people in the UK suffer from dementia and many of these people will have experienced visiting their local dental practice. It will provide dental teams with valuable information on how difficult things can be for sufferers and provide some ideas on how to make arrangements to make the process smoother and easier for their patients.

Paul Holmes, Director South, Health Education England said:

Twenty two million adults in England saw an NHS dentist in the 24 months to June 2014, according to the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).  A significant number of these people are likely to have difficulty with short term memory loss and may be in the early stages of dementia. Awareness of these potential issues by health care staff can significantly improve patient experiences.

I hope this film provokes debate and gets dental teams to look at what they might do differently to help improve people’s experiences and would like to congratulate the Thames Valley and Wessex Dental teams for their hard work.