TY - JOUR
T1 - A Qualitative Study Exploring the Barriers and Facilitators for Maintaining Oral Health and Using Dental Service in People with Severe Mental Illness
T2 - Perspectives from Service Users and Service Providers
AU - Mishu, Masuma Pervin
AU - Faisal, Mehreen Riaz
AU - Macnamara, Alexandra
AU - Sabbah, Wael
AU - Peckham, Emily
AU - Newbronner, Liz
AU - Gilbody, Simon
AU - Gega, Lina
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: Grants in support of your research work: UKRI (ESRC CENTRE FOR ECONOMIC & SOCIAL ASPECTS) (REFERENCE: ES/S004459/1) through the ‘Closing the Gap’ Network+. The APC was funded by the University of York as an agreement with the UKRI funder project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/4/5
Y1 - 2022/4/5
N2 - People with severe mental illness suffer from a high burden of oral diseases, which can negatively impact their physical and mental well-being. Despite the high burden, they are less likely to engage in oral health care including accessing dental services. We aimed to identify both the service users’ and service providers’ perspective on the barriers and facilitators for maintaining oral health and dental service use in people with severe mental illness. Qualitative exploration was undertaken using dyadic or one-to-one in-depth interviews with service users in the UK with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or bipolar disorder. Service providers, including mental health and dental health professionals, and informal carers (people identified as family or friend who are not paid carers) were also interviewed. Thematic analysis of the data revealed three main cross-cutting themes at the personal, inter-personal and systems level: amelioration of the problem, using a tailored approach and provision of comprehensive support. The main barriers identified were impact of mental ill-health, lack of patient involvement and tailored approach, and accessibility and availability of dental services including lack of integration of services. The main facilitators identified were service providers’ effective communication skills and further support through the involvement of carers. The findings suggest that the integration of dental and mental health services to provide tailored support for overall health and well-being, including the oral health of the patient, can better support people with severe mental illness regarding their oral health needs.
AB - People with severe mental illness suffer from a high burden of oral diseases, which can negatively impact their physical and mental well-being. Despite the high burden, they are less likely to engage in oral health care including accessing dental services. We aimed to identify both the service users’ and service providers’ perspective on the barriers and facilitators for maintaining oral health and dental service use in people with severe mental illness. Qualitative exploration was undertaken using dyadic or one-to-one in-depth interviews with service users in the UK with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or bipolar disorder. Service providers, including mental health and dental health professionals, and informal carers (people identified as family or friend who are not paid carers) were also interviewed. Thematic analysis of the data revealed three main cross-cutting themes at the personal, inter-personal and systems level: amelioration of the problem, using a tailored approach and provision of comprehensive support. The main barriers identified were impact of mental ill-health, lack of patient involvement and tailored approach, and accessibility and availability of dental services including lack of integration of services. The main facilitators identified were service providers’ effective communication skills and further support through the involvement of carers. The findings suggest that the integration of dental and mental health services to provide tailored support for overall health and well-being, including the oral health of the patient, can better support people with severe mental illness regarding their oral health needs.
KW - dental health services
KW - health services accessibility
KW - mental ill health
KW - oral health
KW - qualitative research
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127562403&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph19074344
DO - 10.3390/ijerph19074344
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85127562403
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 19
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
IS - 7
M1 - 4344
ER -