Sustaining oral health services in remote and indigenous communities: a review of 10 years experience in Western Australia
Open accessAbstract
In line with findings throughout Australia, rural, remote and Indigenous Western Australians suffer from a higher burden of oral disease and have less access to dental practitioners and care than their urban and non-Indigenous counterparts. With workforce projections indicating an increase in the shortage of dental practitioners, especially in rural and remote areas, the Centre for Rural and Remote Oral Health (CRROH) in Western Australia set out to establish a sustainable programme to service such increasingly disadvantaged populations. Via the vertical integration of education, service and research CRROH pioneered a sustainable model to deliver much needed oral health services to some of Western Australia's most remote areas, while primarily focused on addressing the oral health needs of Indigenous Australians. One of the key lessons from the programme has been the development of a strong clinical governance framework and a support network to sustain services in remote locations. This study offers one way to provide and sustain dental care for those most in need, yet largely left out.
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Healthcare professionals have shown interest in the colocation model since it is the first step to merge primary care and dental care and allows establishing a relationship among the healthcare workforce, showing promising results in delivery of efficient care addressing both medical and oral health needs of patients.
“Healthcare professionals have shown interest in the colocation model since it is the first step to merge primary care and dental care and allows establishing a relationship among the healthcare workforce, showing promising results in the delivery of efficient care addressing both the medical and oral health needs of patients.”
From Barriers and facilitators in the integration of oral health into primary care: a scoping review (2017) · cites this paper as [61]
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- Authors
- Kruger, E., Jacobs, A., & Tennant, M.
- Affiliations
- The University of Western Australia (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Kruger, Estie
- Venue
- International Dental Journal
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-04
- Volume
- 60
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 129-134
- ISSN
- 0020-6539 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1546138504
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2025: 5 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 5.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Dental Journal (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Dentistry › Periodontics › Dental Health and Care Utilization
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Emergency Medical Services › Global Health Workforce Issues
- Social Sciences › Health › Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights
- Keywords
- oral health services, remote communities, Indigenous Australians, dental workforce shortage, rural oral health, service sustainability, clinical governance, access to dental care, oral disease burden, Western Australia
- MeSH terms
- Workforce, Delivery of Health Care, Dental Caries, Dental Clinics, Dental Health Services, Dentists, DMF Index, Education, Dental, Government Programs, Health Services Accessibility, Health Services, Indigenous, Humans, Medically Underserved Area, Mentors, Periodontal Diseases, Western Australia, Program Evaluation, Dental Research, Rural Health Services, Health Status Disparities, Clinical Governance
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