Personal Hygiene

Overview

The score for Personal Hygiene is based on the customer’s ability to complete grooming activities. These tasks include:

Hair care
Oral care
Washing face and hands
Nail care, for fingers and toes
Menses care
Use of deodorant

The customer may be able to perform some tasks better than others. Score based on the customer’s ability to perform all tasks in personal hygiene and explain in comments.

During the PAS Interview

The following table includes tips for getting clear, complete information during the interview. Include the information when entering the comment. The comment should always include who gave the information.

Personal Hygiene Components	Tips to gather the correct information
How does the customer maintain personal hygiene?	Use open-ended questions or inquiry statements. Ask what happens for each part of personal hygiene. Here are some suggestions: How does the customer’s hair get combed or brushed? Tell me about the customer’s oral hygiene routine. How does the customer wash his face and hands? Make sure to get information for all grooming tasks.
Who is involved?	Ask the customer and caregiver: Who provides assistance; What assistance is provided; and How the customer participates.
How often does it happen?	For each personal hygiene task, ask how often it is done AND how often assistance from others is provided.
What is the reason for any help provided?	Use inquiry statements or ask questions that invite the customer or caregiver to tell you the reason help is needed. Here are some suggestions: Please tell me the reason that you do that for him. Please describe what prevents the customer from being able to complete the task on her own.

Scoring

Follow the steps below to determine the Personal Hygiene score. Score is based on all grooming tasks that the customer requires. If the customer does not need a task done at all, do not consider it in scoring.

Step	Action
1	Does the customer require total hands-on assistance for all grooming tasks that are required and does NOT physically participate? If YES, STOP. Give the customer a score of 4. If NO, continue to step 2.
2	Does the customer require hands-on assistance for all grooming tasks that are required, but CAN physically participate? If YES, STOP. Give the customer a score of 3. If NO, continue to step 3.
3	Does the customer require hands-on assistance to start or complete grooming tasks most of the time? OR Does the customer require hands-on assistance for some, but not most grooming tasks that are required? If YES to either question, STOP. Give the customer a score of 2. If NO to both, continue to step 4.
4	Is the customer able to complete all grooming tasks that are required with verbal prompts, cue by touch, or materials setup most of the time? If YES, STOP. Give the customer a score of 1. If NO, continue to step 5.
5	Is the customer able to independently complete all grooming tasks that are required most of the time? If YES, STOP. Give the customer a score of 0. If NO, the customer meets some scoring criteria above, go back to step 1.

Definitions

Term	Definitions
Oral Care	Cleaning the mouth and teeth, including dentures, of food debris and dental plaque. For people without teeth or dentures, oral care includes cleaning the mouth and gums.
Physical Participation	The customer’s active participation, not just being passive or cooperative. This includes the ability to complete a part of the task. See DD 6-11 Motor and Independent Living Skills section for examples.
Set-up	Scoring for set-up involves more than simply making grooming items available. Examples of set-up include: squeezing the toothpaste to the top of the tube to make it easier for the person to apply the toothpaste themselves, setting up adaptive holders and long handles for toothbrushes or hairbrushes.

Example

The following example uses a table to help determine the score for the customer. Use this table for guidance to choose the appropriate score. The score with the majority of “X’s”, is the correct score.

The customer’s mother reports that, with daily verbal prompts and set up, the customer washes his hands and face, puts deodorant on, and brushes his teeth. His hair is kept short, so combing is not needed. Nail care is done once monthly by his mother because when he has tried to do this, he makes himself bleed.

	SCORE
TASK	0	1	2	3	4
Hair Care	n/a
Tooth brushing		X
Washing Face and Hands		X
Nail Care					X
Menses Care	n/a
Deodorant		X

Explanation:

Looking at the task as a whole, the customer’s needs and abilities mostly fall within a score of 1. He only needs a greater level of caregiver support to complete or finish one of the tasks (nail care). A score of 1 is appropriate.