Sonja Kuipers

68 Chapter 3 indicated. These results concur with previous research in patients diagnosed with a severe mental illness [27,35] showing that not all mental health nurses routinely address oral health interventions in patients. Mental health nurses, as one of the main health professionals supporting the health of patients diagnosed with a mental health disorder, can support oral health (e.g., assess oral health in somatic screening, motivate patients, provide oral health education to increase awareness of risk factors, integration of oral health care services). To be able to pay attention to the oral health of patients, it is important that nurses are aware about the importance of the topic. Mental health nurses can provide more information on their needs, what their barriers are and their attitude on oral health and related issues of physical health care in mental health services. In order to develop new evidence-based nursing interventions in oral health care, it is important to involve mental health nurses, as well as experts by experience from the beginning. A design-oriented approach is an appropriate iterative way of working in co-creation and suitable for tackling problems in healthcare interventions [36,37]. The participatory and iterative method of design-oriented research gives professionals and experts by experience the opportunity to think along from the very start and to give them a decisive voice in appropriate solution directions that really add value. The results of this study show that there is a need for a prevention and treatment programme for young adults diagnosed with a psychotic disorder. This programme should include an integrated approach between nurses (in mental health care, general health care, and community care) and dental professionals. An oral health programme with advice for treatment and prevention of oral health-related problems, focusing on all young adults (18-35 years), but specially modified to vulnerable young people.

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