Telling my story. The co-designing of oral health training resources.

Andrea Rodriguez, Camila Biazus-Dalcin, Niall McGoldrick, Declan Cairns, Matthew Fancourt, Stan Burridge, Derek Holiday, Roseann Gorman

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractpeer-review

Abstract

People experiencing homelessness are often labelled as ‘hard to reach’. This label leads to their needs being neglected in dental research and the provision of dental treatment, which contributes to aggravate the oral health inequalities across the globe. The recent WHO framework for engagement of people living with non-communicable diseases highlights how important it is to provide experts-by-experience with meaningful opportunities to participate in research. Adopting participatory methodologies such as co-design can ensure the needs of these communities are listened to and are addressed in any future dental service design.
The National Oral Health Improvement Programme for People Experiencing Homelessness in Scotland, Smile4Life, identified that health and social care practitioners want to have more training opportunities and educational resources to aid their interaction and engagement with people experiencing or at risk of becoming homeless.
This study incorporated the views of people with lived experience, practitioners from the Third Sector, and NHS Boards to co-design a package of health and oral health promotion resources. 25 online workshops and 7 semi-structured interviews were conducted, recorded, and analysed using content analysis. The results linked with the creation of an oral health guide had four key themes: 1. The need to reduce stigma coming from services, 2. The power of people’s stories in tailoring health messages, 3. Principles of empathy and trust should inform practitioner’s approaches and 4. The awareness of service user readiness for change/behaviour change techniques.
The co-design method helped to advance the understanding around the different phases required to involve people in research and co-creation of knowledge. The study has developed a package of health promotion materials that align with the principles of equitable partnership, community empowerment, and critical thinking. These materials acknowledged the perspectives and aspirations of service users and will improve practitioners’ ability to address the specific needs of this group.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2024
Event2024 IADR/ AADOCR/ CADR 2024 - New Orleans, United States
Duration: 13 Mar 202416 Mar 2024
https://www.iadr.org/2024-iadraadocrcadr-general-session-information

Conference

Conference2024 IADR/ AADOCR/ CADR 2024
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityNew Orleans
Period13/03/2416/03/24
Internet address

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