Oh yes Henry, don't forget the grand kids are coming over, they're coming for lunch.
Won't that be lovely.
Henry and I have been together for nearly 52 years.
I lost part of him to this dementia
and people don’t see the part I haven’t lost.
Little moments when he smiles at me and remembers something
seeing him calm down when I take hold his hand
I know this is the last stretch
but I’m just glad we can do it together
in our own home
with the help of our kids
and the care workers.
We’d be lost without them.
Hi Julie.
Hello Sally
Come in
It's a beautiful day outside isn't it?
It's a lovely day, I wish I was out there.
I was a bus driver ten years ago but the shifts were too hard to manage.
I was a single Mum at the time
and to be honest I chose this work because it looked a bit flexible.
But I stay in the job ‘cause you get attached to the clients.
A lot of the care workers had experience in caring for someone in their family before they chose to work in this area.
I don’t think many people understand what we do.
You only do this job if the title fits
you care.
There’s something very special about keeping two people like Sally and Henry together.
When you see people older people, still loving each other, it makes the world seem safer somehow.
My job is to help people like Sally and Henry stay together and stay at home.
The idea of stopping when I notice something, then checking my assumptions, then acting on them is really useful.
With Henry, I noticed a shaggy dog toothbrush
and he ate so slowly and was getting more picky with his food.
So I acted by putting a new toothbrush on the shopping list and
talking to Sally about who brushes Henry’s teeth.
Sally was trying to do it but getting pretty stressed about it
and felt bad about asking us for help.
I reported all this to our coordinator, Cathy,
and now it’s on his daily care plan for us to assist with brushing.
Cathy also sorted out how we could get Henry to a dental visit.
We are the eyes and ears of the organisation.
The coordinators can only make changes to the care plans if we give them feedback about what we see and hear.
The stop, check and act idea has influenced the way I work a lot.
I noticed Sally forgetting things and found her glasses in the butter container in the fridge.
That made me think maybe Sally was also getting Dementia.
I told Cathy about the glasses and a few other things
and Cathy had a talk to Sally.
Well … Sally was deeply depressed about how she was managing everything
and her GP ended up treating her for depression
and that was a big help.
It’s easy to be labeled as having dementia
when depression in an older person can look the same.
I was so glad that I stopped, checked and acted on that
‘cause without Sally keeping well, they would both end up in full time care.
Carer stress they called it.
You try to put on a brave front
but underneath I was crumbling
I knew there were problems with his mouth
but there were so many problems I just put it in the too hard basket.
Well I got some help for me
and I’ve never felt better.
Getting his mouth sorted helped to ease the stress a little.
There are so many things that I can’t change for Henry.
He won’t ever remember our wedding day again.
He won’t be able to go out walking with me in the evenings like we use to.
But I did get his mouth healthy again
and I can sit with him and my children and their children
and not be worried that the way he eats bothers them
or that his breath smells.
It’s these little things at this stage that make me feel like I am doing something for him
that it’s not all down-hill.
You know, we never talked about teeth before the oral health project.
I am amazed now at how many clients find it confronting to talk about their mouths.
I think they feel more comfortable talking about their incontinence then their teeth
can you work that out?
I guess our mouths are a very personal space and lots of people are scared of going to the dentist.
When we were asked to be part of a new oral health project for our clients I thought – here we go,
another demand in an already busy schedule.
The care workers had to do some training in oral health and stopping and checking for things they notice that may alert them to oral health problems.
Then they contacted us and we followed up on the issues.
Stop, check, act – that was the message.
We did a simple oral health assessment that helped us work out who needed to visit a dentist.
This also helped us put in place a daily oral health care plan that included oral hygiene support.
It was hard for me to take Henry to the dentist.
I had to overcome some of my own fear just to go with him.
There was all the carry on of how to get him there, the dentist needed Henry’s medical history and a list of his tablets from the doctor
and I worried about how he would cope.
But oh, things have changed a lot.
Julie our care worker, took us to the dentist, stayed with us and then took us home again.
The dentist was so careful about not hurting Henry
which was just as well ‘cause if he did, that would have been the end of it.
You need the right dentist on board, that’s for sure.
Henry had three teeth that were very broken down
and they were cutting into his tongue
making a huge ulcer.
The teeth would have been painful but that would be nothing compared to the pain from his tongue.
The dentist managed to smooth down the rough edges of his broken down teeth
on the first visit
and that sorted his tongue out.
It took a few visits for Henry to get use to accepting treatment
but we got there.
You could see the difference in him.
Started eating different foods
and I think the grandkids found it easier to have meals with him
as he was eating in a nicer way
if you know what I mean.
The odd bit of steak that came out instead of going down didn’t bother me
but it’s different for the kids
he just looked less anxious all day
His pain would have been like torture.
Felt horrid that it got to that point but … you can only do your best.
This has made me realise just how important it is to look after my own teeth as well.
My kids have also got the message.
We had 60 clients in the project and in the end, 40 of them accessed a dental visit.
Then the stories started to roll in.
Clients with new dentures eating better,
dentures relined so they stayed up when they spoke so the clients could communicate better,
clients no longer in pain because their natural teeth have been fixed,
clients eating more,
care workers noticing that their breath was fresh for the first time,
maybe even addressing some of the issues of pneumonia that are common in our clients.
I had no idea that your chance of chest infection was higher if you had dirty teeth.
Things like that made me think
you know, it isn’t that much paperwork to make all this happen
and it is really worth making it happen.
We worked on getting 6 key oral health messages to our clients.
This included simple things they could do themselves.
Like how to care for natural teeth,
how to care for dentures,
relief of dry mouth,
tooth-friendly eating,
seeing a dentist
and quitting smoking.
My first impression of Max was that he was a loveable rogue type
but I have to admit that his bad breath was something that made it hard for me to be around him
and I had no way of feeling comfortable about saying anything.
I can’t even tell my best friend she has bad breath.
After the oral health training, I thought about the idea of stopping, checking and acting.
I had to stop and acknowledge that his bad breath was a problem.
I checked by asking him if he visited a dentist and he hadn't,
then I acted by contacting my coordinator.
I am a person that just says it how it is
so I told Max he had bad breath and he better do something about it.
He let me look in his bathroom and I could tell his toothbrush hadn’t been used because it was dry
even though he said he brushed just before I came.
There was plenty of toothpaste.
Three packets but all were unopened.
I didn’t say anything about the brush or the paste,
I just got him to show me how he brushed.
I pointed out that he was missing the place where his gums meet the teeth
and was waving the brush around like he was washing his car not his teeth.
We had a bit of a laugh and I think he caught on.
He had an upper plate and when he took that out I knew there was a problem.
It was heavily coated and I told him about the soaking in vinegar for one night trick.
That soon brought it back to new and now he knows how to keep the plate clean, we’re home and hosed.
Well, there was the trip to the dentist that took a bit of convincing but we got there.
When he realised he was eligible to see a public dentist and that it wouldn’t cost much– his eyes lit up.
Watches his money our Max!
I used the excuse that it was just too much bother to get a new plate.
It’s a train trip to get to the nearest dentist in this contraption.
Well, Cathy has an answer for everything as you probably worked out for yourself.
She found out that I could go to the public dentist because I’ve got a pension card, which saved me a lot.
She got Julie to pick me up and take me which was a big help.
Having these care workers has made a big difference to me.
Don’t tell her I said that.
She’s a bit bossy but I put up with it.
She’s got a good heart that one.
No one likes being told you don’t smell good.
Anyway, it wasn’t hard to do what she said.
I got a new upper plate and now I’ve got another problem as a result – I’m putting on too much weight
three kilos in the last month.
They didn’t warn me about that when I got my mouth sorted out.
Don’t think I can afford to go to Jenny Craig's though
I wonder if Jenny Craig has a pension discount?
Organising the trip to the dentist for Max was never going to be straightforward.
First thing was to find a dentist with wheelchair access.
This was easy.
All I had to do was phone the public dental service
or look up the Australian Dental Association website.
You can even tell if the dentist is willing to do a home visit.
Then we booked an access cab and I made sure it was a mid-morning appointment
because Max is a bit more fresh and cheerful in the mornings.
The only slip up was that when we got there, they needed his medical history
and Max was a bit vague about his tablets and I had no idea.
Now we take the client’s Webster pack with us
or ask the GP’s for a medical summary
and list of medications for the dental visits.
The other big issue is consent.
No problem with Max, he consents for himself,
but if we take a client who can’t consent we make sure the person responsible comes or signs a consent form.
then we make sure the person responsible comes
or signs a consent form
New teeth, fresh breath,
even trying to give up me tobacco
the dentist reckons my gums’ll be a lot healthier if I give it up
Cathy’s been on my case about the smokes.
You look forward to the visit from the care workers.
Julie and that bossy one
they’re all different and that’s made my life different – for the better.