Fwd: Oral Health for individuals with dementia & elderly
Secretary General
From: "Oral Health Working Group WFPHA" <oh...@wfpha.org>
Date: Jun 5, 2014 9:57 AM
Subject: Oral Health for individuals with dementia & elderly
To: "Marta Lomazzi" <Marta....@unige.ch>
Dear Colleague:
In May 2014, the Resolution “Oral Health for Individuals with Dementia” proposed by the World Federation of Public Health Association (WFPHA) Oral Health Working Group (OHWG), chaired by Dr Raman Bedi, co-chaired by Drs K. Eaton and M. Allukian, and cosigned by the International Council of Nurses, has been approved by the WFPHA General Assembly and got very positive feedbacks (Att_D).
The WFPHA OHWG is aware that one overlooked problem in the group of older adults relates to poor oral hygiene. Oral health is a frequently neglected aspect of general (public) health. The prevalence of dementia is increasing worldwide. It is increasingly evident that because those who are demented frequently have difficulty in communicating with their carers (caretakers), they often suffer unnecessarily. This resolution seeks to address one aspect of this problem, which relates to poor oral health in the elderly.
With this resolution, the WFPHA OHWG therefore urges that particular attention is paid to addressing this problem at all levels, with the active participation of national public health associations and allied groups, in a national and global response to raising awareness of the problem and ensuring that carers (caretakers) are trained to prevent it and do so.
Moreover, a OHWG statement on Oral Health for Individuals with Dementia and elderly in general (Att_E), jointly elaborated with the International Council of Nurses, has been added as a document of the 67th World Health Assembly under the point Multisectoral action for a life course approach to healthy ageing (http://apps.who.int/gb/e/e_wha67.html )
Please feel free to distribute it within your network and to use it for advocacy.
Do not hesitate to contact us (oh...@wfpha.org) for any further information.
Sincerely
Marta Lomazzi
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Dr Marta Lomazzi, PhD
Executive Manager &
Oral Health WG Executive Coordinator
World Federation of Public Health Associations
http://www.wfpha.org
Health Communication
University of Geneva
http://www.unige.ch/medecine/imsp/collaborateurs/lomazzi.html
Institute of Global Health
c/o CMU
1, rue Michel Servet
CH-1211 Genève 4
Tél: +41 (0)22 379 04 55
Fax: +41 (0)22 379 04 52
mailto:marta....@unige.ch