Homeless and Inclusion Oral Health Conference: How to take action for inclusion takes place on Friday 23 November.

The event aims to raise awareness of oral health inequalities and help dental teams improve the oral health of socially excluded populations. The Homeless and Inclusion Oral Health conference was the combined concept of Janine Doughty (Pathway Homeless and Inclusion Oral Health Fellow) and Andrew Dickenson (Postgraduate Dental Dean Midlands and East) and the first one took place in 2016.

Janine says: 'The idea of the conference is both to raise awareness of the oral health implications of homelessness and social exclusion and to demonstrate what initiatives are in place around the country to reach out to marginalised and vulnerable people. The theme of the conference is 'how to take action for inclusion" – all of the workshops are designed to give teams insight into how they can develop inclusive dental practice in their local area. There will also be plenty of opportunity to share ideas and good practice with other dental and healthcare professionals who are interested in homeless and inclusion oral health.

She adds: 'Revive Dental Care in Manchester is an excellent example of an inclusive dental practice. The practice takes a team approach to addressing oral health inequalities and utilises their motivated and enthusiastic dental nurses and dentists to reach out to people experiencing homelessness and social exclusion. Additionally, the practice engages with a range of other services beyond dentistry in the active pursuit of connecting with people who are often mis-labelled as being "hard-to-reach." I think there is a lot to be learned from the Revive model.

'In order to fund similar initiatives, CCGs require evidence from high quality evaluations of models of care such as those delivered by Revive. As a result of the Groundswell (2017) research we know that almost a third of people experiencing homelessness who completed the survey have accessed A&E as a result of dental problems - if we can evidence the potential that models such as Revive have to minimise extreme measures taken to manage dental problems (e.g. accessing A&E, self-extracting teeth, self-medicating with drugs and alcohol) then we start to develop a powerful narrative in support of funding inclusive dental practices.'

The day features keynote speakers including:

• Janine Doughty (Doctoral Research Fellow, National Institute for Health Research and Crisis at Christmas dentistry deputy service organiser)
• Professor Andrew Hayward (Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Inclusion Health Research)
• Martin Burrows (Healthy Mouths, Groundswell)
• Professor Ruth Freeman (Professor of Dental Public Health Research, Hon Consultant in DPH, University of Dundee)
• Ben Atkins (Clinical Director of Revive Dental Care and Trustee of the Oral Health Foundation)
• Janet Clarke, Deputy Chief Dental Officer for England.

There are nine workshops for you to choose from, with practical, action-focused advice to drive forward inclusion oral health in clinical practice and research. Topics include:

• How to deliver oral health promotion for people experiencing social exclusion
• Working with Adverse Childhood Events and patients who have experienced trauma
• Designing community dental services for people experiencing homelessness
• Managing medicine in dentistry for people experiencing social exclusion
• Working with Experts by Experience
• Setting up health outreach with people experiencing social exclusion
• Research co-production with Experts by Experience
• Integrating social inclusion into the dentistry curriculum
• Cultivating social responsibility in general dental practice.

Homeless and Inclusion Oral Health Conference: How to take action for inclusion takes place on Friday 23 November from 9.30am until 4.30pm at BVSC, The Centre for Voluntary Action, 138 Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 6DR.

To book, visit www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/homeless-and-inclusion-oral...

To follow on social media, go to Twitter @inclusivedental #HIOH2018

Author: Julie Bissett