My Story, My Words, My Mouth – film showcase about the dental experiences of community returners (ex-offenders).

Description

Funder: the Centre for Public Engagement Large Grants, Queen Mary University of London.
Award: £10,000
Period: Nov 2022 to July 2023.
Summary of the Project:
The oral health of the more than 90,000 in prison in the UK is four times worse than that of the general population. While there is some emerging research on the oral health of prisoners in the justice system, there is a lack of research about what happens to this population when they leave the prison system and transition back into the community to become ex-offenders, more positively known as community returners. Engaging and involving community returners in research to identify their oral health priorities and to help develop dental services that could be beneficial to them in their community transition is crucial.

The aim of this project is to provide community returners with a platform to use their voices to share their experiences of oral health and accessing dental care via the medium of film. This catalyst film aims to spark conversation, change perceptions and set research priorities to improve the oral health of community returners.

This project will work with film makers, community returners, their families, justice system staff, healthcare professionals and third sector organisations. A series of film making workshops will take place to create a film written by community returners and a screening event will be held to capture how the film has changed the perspective of wider stakeholder groups. The film will explore topics such as engagement with dental and related health services, stigmatisation, language use, disclosure and what role oral health plays in societal reintegration.

Period	29 Nov 2022 → 31 Jul 2023
Held at	Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
Degree of Recognition	Local