Word of Mouth - School of Public Health and Community Medicine ...

Filling the GapI mean I may have crossed their culturalbarriers without knowing it, but they didn’tmake me feel that; so they were all prettytolerant towards me … When you prove thatyou are there for the right reasons … they arevery open.when the van would be serviced. Serviceswere regularly provided to numerous smallertownships in the Wuchopperen footprint. Morerecently, this mobile service has – by necessity– been extremely restricted, and just visits themajor centres when a dentist is available.Several informants from Wuchopperen showedappreciation of the diversity in cultures of thedental volunteers. So too the willingness of thevolunteers generally to give of their time andprovide professional care to their patients; to fitin with the practices of the dental unit; and toshare their practical knowledge.What could work betterOverall, provision of dental care through thevolunteer dental program in the weeks wherevolunteers were present was considered by allstakeholders to be more than adequate. Thedownside, as it was noted by one informant,were the weeks where the clinic had novolunteers.Informants identified several areas where theprogram could work better. These includedaddressing barriers to servicing outlyingcommunities; ensuring integrated care and moreprevention work; strengthening the ‘Filling theGap’ partnership; and resolving questions of howto sustain and expand the program overall.On a more practical level, increasing theaccommodation options, within the definedbudget, was important to a number of dentalvolunteers.Further suggestions listed by stakeholder groupare presented in Appendix 9.Addressing barriers to servicingoutlying communitiesThere was resounding support amongststakeholders for sustaining the Mobile DentalClinic and regret at the current barriersto providing the service regularly. WhenWuchopperen had its full staff quota of twofull-time dentists, the mobile dental van used tobe out on the road 48 weeks of the year, with adentist attending the van for at least two daysout of every week, other than at ChristmasIf we had a full-time dentist here, we wouldbe different and we would be able to do alot more outreach … Because there’s a lot outthere, and especially out the back of KurandaI know it’s just horrible; and like it wouldn’tsurprise me if half of those people have gotblood poisoning with their teeth (Wuchopperenstaff member).During the period under evaluation, thewillingness of volunteers to work in the van hasenabled visits to Atherton, Mossman, Kurandaand Mareeba, accompanied by a dentalassistant.More far-flung areas like Ravenshoe had not hada visit for some time [eight years according toone account]. Innisfail too, although road accessis restricted during the wet season. 20Reference to the difficulties of access in outerareas was frequent amongst health service staff:Because dental to me is extremely important… I always used to push it up in [community]and try and get all these done. And I usedto run a bus down to [town], just to get intothe dentists there. So like I’ve always askedAunty […], ‘How come you guys don’t go up to[community]?’ But then, for us, our drama istrying to put that van somewhere where it’snice and safe and secure on level ground. Thatwould be another big drama (Wuchopperenstaff member).The Mobile Clinic operates between one andfive days per week depending on the numberof dental volunteers available. During weeks20 The Mobile Dental Clinic has been able to meet thisdemand in 2008.45