Dental health service in the integrated community care system

Abstract

　We examined dental health service in the integrated community care system. At first we investigatedthree points to ascertain the present conditions.
　First, we investigated the enforcement situation of the dental health service and cooperation with the dental agency for visiting nursing stations. Findings were that half of the facilities performed enforcement of the training about understanding oral status. As for ascertaining the method, most were observation of the nurse and information from the family. From these, it was thought that there was little cooperation with the dental staff.
　The second investigated the enforcement situation of the dental health service among at-home elderly people in need of nursing care in municipalities in the whole country. Findings were that through all municipalities, there was an enforcement rate in the order of visiting oral health instruction, visiting dental practice, and dental checkups by service distinction. Both services tended to have a high enforcement rate in public health centers in cities, towns, and villages where the scale of the population scale was large.
　For the third, we investigated the cooperation situation with care-related facilities of a local dental association. The most cooperative was a community general support center, followed by a health care center for the elderly, and a visit nursing station scored low. In addition, a tendency to take on individual treatment was strong for the health care center for the elderly and tended to establish the communication meeting at the community general support center and to measure cooperation. The cooperation rate with the visit nursing station was low, and the correspondence indicated much individual treatment. The cooperation service had much professional oral care and dental treatment in a health care center for the elderly and a visiting nursing station. There was a lot of oral care at the community general support center.
　Consideration has been also given to a result of the interview survey about cases in forward areas.
　Conditions such as “information sharing” and “high quality coordinators” are met so that dental health staff's role in inclusion care are more local than the above; “the cooperation that only a face gets” is necessary together, but let's be the first to perform cooperatively in business.
　Labor will be required to offer dentistry after a dental health service start that a local dental association coordinates with mutual cooperation. In addition, it becomes the large focus of how dentistry pushes forward in cooperation with many types of jobs. The system propelling these is not nationally uniform, and we believe local characteristics should be kept alive and should propel it forward.