Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

I had the pleasure of attend- ing a study day in Dorset with the Oral Health Pro- motion Unit of Special Care Den- tistry at Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust recently. Philips were supporting the day, along with Henry Schein, Dent- sply and Survival 32. The day was run by Debbie Chandler and Richard Valle-Jones. The first speaker was Kerry Martin of Dorset People First, a charity group who support people with disability and who campaign for respect and qual- ity treatment for their members. Kerry is herself disabled and gives a wonderful, eloquent in- sight into how we as healthcare professionals deal with them as patients. Embarrassingly, there tends to be common mistakes we make which make it very difficult for the patient. Kerry videoed other members of Dor- set People First to help highlight the issues for the delegates. These same members offered solutions to the common prob- lems also. The three most common errors were: • Talking to the patient like a child or idiot. Learning disability does not mean no brain whatsoever! • Rushing the treatment and not explaining well what is going to happen. Not com- municating effectively gen- erally. • Not explaining the choices well and allowing for in- formed choice. I am so glad to report that Kerry had recently had a hy- gienist session where the hy- gienist had worked with Kerry to make sure she was comfort- able and checked regularly that what she was saying was understood. She also spoke to Kerry on a equal level and that was well received also. I then spoke on treating patients with Pervasive devel- opmental disorders (PDD) and how to communicate and plan for successful treatment ses- sions. PDD is often referred to as the umbrella term Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) by parents and professionals. Here I was trying again to show the patients’ point of view and give an understand- ing into what can trigger a bad experience for the patient and result in no treatment being possible. Again we looked at health- care professional’s assump- tions of non verbal meaning not able. Non verbal patients can and do often have high understanding and should still be given the right to choose and give consent in these situ- ations. I talked about Maka- ton, a simple signing, pic- ture language to accompany speech which is used a lot for people with learning dis- Providing care for those with special needs We all look after patients with special needs…but do we do it well? asks Mhari Coxon The Academy A4 Advert FINAL.indd 1 21/09/2012 10:53 “Embarrassingly, there tends to be common mistakes we make which make it very difficult for the patient” page 20DT ß 18 DCPs November 12 - 18, 2012United Kingdom Edition