Oral health project
Ir land Project Smile
Caoimhin Mac Giolla Phadraig is looking for your ideas for improving dental services for people in Ireland with disabilities
D
o you ever think that the oral health of people with disabilities who you see in
your practice could be better? If so, you might be interested
to hear about Project SMILE Ireland. According to the National
Disability Authority in Oral Health and Disability: The Way Forward (NDA, 2005) poor oral health outcomes affect this growing minority’s participa- tion and inclusion in society. It is unclear why these poor outcomes arise. What is clear is that there is a
need for improved planning of dental services for people with disabilities in Ireland, using better evidence to inform deci- sions. In 20ı0, at a time when State-funded dental services were changing radically, a review of primary care dental services in Ireland, called the PA Consulting Report, identified the need for cohe- sive evidence-based national models of care for people with disabilities in Ireland. Late 20ıı saw the publication of the HSE Service Plan for 20ı2, which set out to enact many of the suggestions in this report.
Project SMILE Ireland Project SMILE Ireland is a new movement that hopes to guide these changes to oral health services for people with disabilities in Ireland using an action research approach. This means that the research
process will help drive this very change and that it is the people providing and using these services who will lead this process. The SMILE team includes dentists, hygien- ists, nurses, disability service providers, special care dental service users, advocacy organi- sations, researchers and policy makers.
Step by step plan for change: The ultimate aim of this group is to establish evidence-based Oral Health Service Models for people with disabilities in Ireland. The project intends to achieve its aims using six distinct steps. Each step has an outcome that is significant in its own right. The table above gives a list of the steps involved in achieving this aim and further information is available on our website.
Six step plan:
summary of input and outcomes (see table above) Step one: Delphi Process (Closing ı October 20ı2) The first step in this process
is to decide what oral health services for people with disa- bilities should aim to achieve. Services can then be designed to achieve these aims. There is, however, little consensus on what the aims of services should be. Therefore the SMILE team plans to find consensus using a Delphi Process as step one. This process will begin this autumn and finish Spring 20ı3. A Delphi panel is a group
of experts who have a view to share on a specific topic, in this case priorities for dental services for people with disa- bilities in Ireland. This sharing leads to consensus through a number of structured rounds of a research process. In this
case, experts can be service users, providers or advocates as all are seen to have expert views on dental services based on their own perspectives. We also encourage service managers and policy makers to become involved in this process. For participants, the Delphi Process allows equal representation of opinion while requiring minimal time and effort. The outcome of the Delphi
process, and therefore every- thing that follows in this programme, will only be as good as the input we get. It is very important that a wide variety of perspectives are represented so that issues specific to certain groups of providers or patients are not missed at this crucial stage. So, if you have a view on what
is important when designing or providing services, join the Delphi panel. You can find out how to join or get more infor- mation at
www.projectsmile
ireland.com or you can email us at info@projectsmile
ireland.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kev (Caoimhin) Mac Giolla Phad- raig is an Ussher lecturer in public dental health (disability studies) in Trinity College Dublin. He also has private practice limited to Special Care Dentistry in Dublin. Contact Kev at 01 6127 337 or
info@specialcaredentist.ie www.specialcaredentist.ie
Ireland’s Dental magazine 19
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48