Outside the Mouth: Dental Practitioner Support

Welcome to the Dental Practitioner, podcasts for the profession. Outside the Mouth is a series dealing with the health and well-being of dental practitioners and their families. Brought to you by Guild Insurance, protecting Australian dentists for over 18 years. Health support for dental practitioners is here and it's just a phone call or a click away.

Launched in July 2020, Dental Practitioner Support is the first twenty four seven telephone and online service for all dental practitioners in Australia. A free, dedicated, confidential service providing health and well-being advice and referral for dental practitioners, dental students, educators, employers, and concerned family members.

Dental Practitioner Support is a Dental Board of Australia initiative and is run by Turning Point, a leading addiction treatment, research and education organisation. doctor Murray Thomas, Chair of the Dental Board of Australia, and Anthony Denham, Program Director for Turning Points. Chat with doctor Rowan Krishnan, current board director at ADA New South Wales, about the news service and the importance of health and well being in the Australian dental community.

To contact the Dental Practitioner Support Service, you can phone 1-800-3777-7000 or go to their website dpsupport.org.au. Doctor Murray Thomas, Mr Anthony Denham. Gentlemen, thanks for joining me today. Murray, let's start with you.

What's the main objective behind this wonderful initiative? The Dental Board was very concerned about the pressures on practitioners. We have a lot of information that indicates there is a degree of anxiety and it's certainly anxiousness whenever a practitioner receives notification, but just in their daily work.

and we wanted that a dental practitioner anywhere in Australia, whether they're based in a city or a rural or remote area to be able to access health and well being support if needed at any time, especially during these COVID times. Anthony, turning point which you're the programme director of, has been looking at transforming lives and I was just wanting you to expand a little bit on that. Yep, sure. So the key catch line for this service is your health matters and I think it's really

It's reminding dental practitioners that their health does matter and there's a service here that's really easy to access and that can provide you with some help. Whether that's stress related work issues, large cohort being working in small business or small practice settings

family problems, broad mental health issues, alcohol and drug or gambling related issues, for example. Um, there are a range of the kinds of things that we can provide support with, so that initial important, easy to access initial support and then also provide pointers and direction suggestions on on what steps that person can take next.

I suppose a lot of the questions that dental practitioners might have are to do with mandatory reporting and whether they would be perceived to be or feel like they might be at risk of I suppose divulging information that may compromise them or others around them? So the staff that will be responding have knowledge around reporting requirements. One of the key things is about providing are really independent, anonymous, people don't need to give details.

the information doesn't get shared. So it's really I think a key platform in encouraging people to come forward sooner. So one of the things we'd be hoping to see and again relates to good well being for the practitioners and and good patient care. is that dental practitioners, whether that be dentists, dental prosthetists, uh oral health therapists, dental pygenists, dental therapists and also students, concerned friends and family members.

have got a really easy direct line to access some support. And what we can do is provide that initial support, particularly people in crisis, and then point them in the right direction in terms of the next steps they need to take, depending on what the kind of the presentation is that they've called about. Who would they actually be speaking to when they do make that call? Trained, qualified counsellors who work in in telephone counselling area.

Um likewise an email will be responded to by the s people with the same skill set, so qualified counsellors and people that have got a lot of experience both with dealing with these sorts of presentations but also working with people over a telephone or email based kind of uh communication platform. Dental practitioners are considered to be the bastions of health improvement.

and uh professionals that society relies upon to help them at a time of need. So I think sometimes dental practitioners, health practitioners may be have been left out of that support system or structure. Murray, what was the impetus or or the driving force behind the inception of this wonderful initiative?

We've realized for several years now that the very things you've been stating apply to dental practitioners as well as the general community. And when I became chair of the dental board in October two thousand and eighteen, I realised that there was the opportunity to provide this initiative. There had been some support for dentists around Australia, but usually tied with their association.

And certainly other associations small associations didn't have the resources to provide this sort of needed care for their members. But also too there is a large number of practitioners who aren't members of association and we realise that the majority of practitioners work in private practice and that they are usually in small and medium sized businesses.

And so we looked around to see what would be available and we realised that the Nursing and Midwifery Board had such a service operating for some time and quite successfully. It was evidence based and it was directed at providing that much needed help, not only in an immediate sense, but also that long term health and well being. The board realised that for patient safety it's important that practitioners remain healthy and their well being is looked after. And so we embarked on a Project.

To see if we could bring this much needed service into being. And am I right in saying that whilst this programme will be funded by the D B A, it will actually be independent of the D B A? Yes. A really critical part of the service is it's synonymous, it's confidential. if people have got issues or practice issues and they're concerned about reporting requirements, this is not a pathway through. We don't link any of that. What we're really trying to say is

come to us early, get some help before things get to that point. And I can't emphasise enough and we know from running the Nurse and Midwife Support Service we've been able to do that successfully and at the same time build a good sense and belief and trust in the population that access the service that we're very, very respectful of that.

one of the key things around transforming people's lives or helping them make change No judgment, so practitioners are all very mindful of not making any judgment of any presentation that's made through this service in particular. Is there any continuity of care with regards to the questions that come through or the concerns that come through from dental practitioners?

The place that this service provides is is that immediate support and it's part of the brief we're not setting ourselves up as an ongoing case management sort of service. People can certainly ring back and we can talk with them but people aren't allocated a case and certainly that's part of maintaining the anonymity of using the service. But we would be referring people to a treatment pathway and engagement with

you know, whether it's a counselor, psychologist, financial advisor and that kind of thing. Specifically I I thought I'd touch on regional practitioners because they've been affected recently by bushfires, floods, droughts and and now COVID nineteen like everyone else.

How does the new service support dental practitioners in regional areas? Aaron Powell I think one of the great things about the service model is that it's equally accessible whether you're in Warwicknapil or C B D Sydney, you can access the same features and same service support through the phone number, the website

or the social media platforms that are available. So I think it doesn't matter whether you're regional or in the heart of the city, you can access the same features for this service across the country at any time of the day. Yeah. And so the board realised that to encourage dental practitioners to use this service. uh had to be seen as relevant to practitioners, but it also had to be accessible and we wanted to remove barriers or perceived barriers to people seeking help or advice.

That's great. You know, regional practitioners especially, like I said, not only have they been adversely affected over the last twelve months but they're also in in some circumstances more alone than anyone else. And you make a really good point. I think it's challenging on a professional level and it's challenging in terms of how you're, you know, as a practitioner responding personally to these

situation and also reacting and managing the different responses that your patients have when they come into the service. So I think it puts a lot of demands on people and I think inevitably all of us are reacting in different ways to situations that we might, for example, normally have taken in our stride. They may affect us in a very different way in the current climate.

I think we're really privileged to have you guys on board and and really have dental practitioners having access to a service like this. It really is very good and for that to be twenty four seven as well. We're really excited about it and and pleased to be able to play this role in launching the service and building it and providing really meaningful support and resources for for the dental profession required.

all the divisions of practice, um, and also students and concerned friends and relatives. And certainly anecdotally, for example, with the other with the nurse and midwife support service that we run, we hear often someone's had a really rough shift they'll come off and and we take calls, someone's in their car after a shift or finishing work and call the service to get some support on a particular issue. So I suppose that just um emphasises how immediate and accessible the service can be.

And and importantly, don't wait. Ring. The sooner the better. Yep. Uh look we're we're really excited about it and I think Um, I think you know, the board have shown some great foresight in getting this up and running and I think what we've done in the background through their support and some great work by our team is get the service up and running in a really short time frame in recognition of um the p the particular needs of the time that we're living through at the moment.

You can actually provide some really meaningful support in a five, ten minute phone call um when that person's in need and um and set them on their journey. So it it's much more than just a referral service, it provides some really significant support when people need it.

and helps them get on their path to addressing whatever it is they need to work with. And it's Murray here. Ma just give some take home messages for all practitioners and their families. This service is available to all the divisions on the of dental practitioners and dental students.

We want to encourage dental practitioners to seek help early when they need it. We wanna destigmatise a dental practitioner calling for support to help deal with their feelings and about stress and pressure they've been experiencing. and to give them the confidence that there is support out there that it's independent, it's anonymous, confidential, and their issues will not be reported back to the board. It's available twenty four seven. It's free.

And the important number is one eight hundred three seven double zero is the phone number. You can contact the service via email which is listed on the website. The website address importantly is dpsupport.org.au. And there's also another part of this is about building a community and and kind of a uh building a sense that that you're not on your own and

your peers are around you. So one of the things we focus on as well is a social media programme through things like Facebook and Twitter and the handle for that is at D P support AU. and what people can do by subscribing to that service or engaging with that is

get regular suggestions about good health and well being. I can see other people in their professions that are engaged in in the service as well. So one of the key messages for us too is Even if um you don't feel like you've got a problem now, put the number in your phone or the web address in your contact book

And you might need it one day. And certainly I think one of the things that can really help get the word out about the service is for practitioners to broadly share that those contact details as well. Doctor Murray Thomas, Mr Anthony Denham, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much for your time.