SORTED

In England, the Care Act 2014 sets out the local authority’s role in helping people with care and support needs to live as well as possible. A Care Act assessment and an individual support plan will be developed for people living with dementia, eligible for publicly funded support, to help promote their wellbeing.

Having dementia is a risk for poor mouth and dental health. If this aspect of personal care is not covered consistently, it risks negative effects on people’s health and wellbeing. There is Health Education England guidance for care homes but not for homecare providers. 

• Aims and objectives

  Aim: To explore ways of improving social care practice in integrating mouth and dental care into personal care for people living with dementia at home.

  Objectives:

  1. To explore individual Care Act assessments and care plans to understand if and how they mention mouth and dental care.
  2. To explore the views of people living with dementia and their family carers on the content and process of addressing mouth and dental care in assessments and care plans.
  3. To explore the views of practitioners (social workers, homecare staff) on the content of care plans and care practices.
  4. To co-produce an accessible output.

   

• Methods

  Methods:

  • a randomly sampled documentary analysis of care assessments (objective 1),
  • individual semi-structured interviews with family carers, homecare providers and social workers (objectives 2 and 3),
  • two co-production workshops to design our two main study outputs (objective 4).

   

• Findings

  SORTED project findings

  • Mouth and dental care needs for people living with dementia at home may be overlooked.
  • Oral care could be more regularly discussed and included in assessment and care planning practice.
  • There are now various ways to promote oral care and several tools to facilitate daily oral care routines. Practitioners should encourage homecare providers and family carers to think strategically and practically about oral health care and its place in overall care planning as disabilities develop.
  • The development of oral health care guidelines for good practice in homecare may be timely and would mirror those available to residential settings.
  • The domains of Care Act assessment might be extended to ensure the subject is covered during this important conversation and in care planning.

  Our findings have implications for practitioners, educators, and commissioners engaging with people affected by dementia. Although this was a small exploratory study, we have built a better understanding of how assessments and care plans are developed with individuals and carers by local authority adult services departments and private homecare agencies to help promote mouth and dental care for people living with dementia. 

• Resources and publications

  Mouth checklist and Guidance poster

  Soilemezi, D., Wanyonyi, K., Hill, V., & Manthorpe, J. (2025). Social workers’ consideration of dental support for people living with dementia: Findings from interviews and care assessment documentation. Dementia (London, England), 24(2), 290–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/14713012241284779

  Soilemezi D, Wanyonyi K, Hill V, Manthorpe J. Views of homecare staff and carers on oral needs and dental care for people living with dementia: a qualitative study. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2023;e6039. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.6039 

  Dementia Chatathon: online event, 2nd December 2022 https://chatathon.uk/