Friday 26 February 2010
Kids from Top End communities have benefited from three weeks of dental outreach services.
Today (Friday 26 February) three teams of dental workers returned to Darwin from visits to Angurugu, Maningrida and Borroloola as part of the Closing the Gap outreach program in NT.
Julie Hornibrook, Program Manager Closing the Gap Child Oral Health NT, said it had been an immensely successful few weeks and a tribute to the staff and patients involved.
"We are extremely pleased with the results of the three outreaches conducted in the past few weeks in the Top End," Ms Hornibrook said.
"We have had three teams of two - dental therapists and dental assistants - providing dental assessment and treatment to Indigenous kids under 16.
"This service is also following up on referrals to dental services from Child Health Checks from the NT Emergency Response.
"We also had an Oral Health Promotion staff member travel with the Borroloola team to develop a tooth brushing program for school kids."
The dental outreach teams were recruited by the Remote Area Health Corps (RAHC) and supported by the Closing the Gap program. The teams are based in the communities' remote health centres and work closely with local staff to ensure children can access their services.
"We look forward to following up this work with 'one week dental surgery intensives' at Katherine and Gove hospitals in April and May by visiting specialist teams," Ms Hornibrook added.
"We have provided dental services to hundreds of children in the last few weeks which will make a big difference to teeth of these young Territorians we treated.
"We have held over twelve outreach trips of three weeks each across the NT since last July which is a great boost to NT Oral Health services providing regular outreaches to communities."
"Thanks must go to the fantastic teams of remote oral health workers, many of whom have worked in the NT before and always enjoy coming back."
This outreach program follows other successful outreaches through the NT Emergency Response from 2008. The project is supported through the National Partnerships Agreement, Closing the Gap funding.
The three teams consisted of:
Angurugu - Sharon Stuhl ( Dental Therapist) and Vicki McFarlane (Dental Assistant)
Maningrida - Andrea Lock (Dental Therapist) and Michelle Nagel (Dental Assistant)
Borroloola - Glenda Adams (Dental Therapist); Kay McLennan (Dental Assistant) and Andrew Packer (Oral Health Promotion Officer)
