Government Plans for Gerodontics

The Federal Government certainly seem to be heading in the right direction with the proposed dental healthcare plan for nursing home residents though many may question whether or not the level of funding will be sufficient. Most of us who have anything to do with nursing homes or have our own relatives or those we know of cared for, are all too aware of the discomfort and for many, serious pain many nursing home residents can and do suffer from often simply due to no dental or oral hygiene screening at all. On top of this, malnutrition becomes a very serious issue within nursing homes often as a combination of discomfort but also the capacity of those suffering to actually communicate effectively what the problem is.

It will no doubt be a difficult program to implement let alone efficiently manage and with a budget of only $3m, an uphill battle……..

As regular practitioners, how can we help? I don’t have an answer to that though maybe some of us do. Can I suggest if there are some worthwhile suggestions, I would hope the Minister’s office will be able to offer some means for submissions to be made. My office is trying to establish if there is a provision for this made and if so, I will note it in the next news letter.

I can only encourage us all to submit any ideas we may have. This is financially a government responsibility but we all know and appreciate the government are our elected repetitive/s and this is our collective social responsibility.

Dr Frank Papadopoulos