Our Projects
Te Rōpu Niho Ora regularly develops and leads projects for Māori oral health provider to improve the quality of oral health service provision and ultimately oral and general health outcomes for whānau Māori.
These projects are designed to achieve the following outcomes:
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There are equitable oral health outcomes for pēpi, tamariki, rangatahi, pakeke, and kaumatua
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The number of Māori Oral Health Providers is increasing
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The oral health workforce is culturally competent
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Oral health services are culturally responsive
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Equitable opportunities exist for Māori to enter, train, work, and progress in the oral health sector
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The number of new graduates working in Māori oral health providers has increased
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Oral health and primary care practitioners are confident and capable in screening for health and oral health in their respective areas
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Oral health workforce information pertaining to Māori and Māori oral health providers is reliable, robust and readily available
Māori Oral Health Provider Workforce Plan 2018-2020
The Māori Oral Health Provider Workforce Plan 2016-2020 (‘Workforce Plan’) has been developed by the Te Rōpu Niho Ora to help support the growth and sustainability of the MOHP sector, as well as contribute to overall efforts to train and recruit a high quality, culturally responsive oral health workforce. A coordinated sector approach is necessary to address the barriers, gaps, under-representation, and lack of Māori oral health workforce intelligence.
The Workforce Plan has four parts:
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Growing the MOHP sector
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Training the MOHP sector
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Strengthening the oral health workforce
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Quality Māori oral health workforce information
These four areas set out in this Workforce Plan are critical for increasing and improving Māori participation, and will require the Te Rōpu Niho Ora MOHP, and wider oral health stakeholders such as the Ministry of Health, University of Otago Dental Faculty, Te Ao Marama, and the New Zealand Dental Council to work collaboratively to achieve the actions.
Tō Waha Wairoa
Tō Waha is a community-led initiative providing free dental treatments to communities with unmet oral health needs, who cannot afford or access dental care. Tō waha Wairoa 2022 was provided by local collaboration including Hawke’s Bay District Health Board, Wairoa Community Partnership implementation Group, Kahungunu iwi leaders and dentists who volunteered their time to support this initiative.
QIG was proud to sponsor the Tō Waha Research Team which looked at the future aspirations for oral health in the Wairoa Community. Find out more
Ngā Ara Tika
Ngā Ara Tika: Integrated Practice Guidelines for Māori oral health providers in the primary care setting (‘Ngā Ara Tika’) are evidence based, peer reviewed guidelines developed to support primary care and oral health practitioners to work closer together to manage patient care, and improve clinical decision making. Ngā Ara Tika encourages health workers to stretch outside of what they might consider their usual scopes of practice to ultimately improve population health through greater proactive “screening” of key health issues. To keep up to date with emerging and growing health concerns new priority areas are added to Ngā Ara Tika as appropriate. The current priority areas are:
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Helping people who smoke to stop
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Rheumatic Fever
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Hauora Tamariki
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Oral Health and diabetes
Ngā Ara Tika was first piloted in two of the MOHP in 2014 . Formative and process evaluations were completed to determine how well integrated practices were embedded with the MOHP, and any impact on patient care management.
Ngā Ara Tika is relevant to many health services and practitioners as the the health sector encourages greater collaboration, information sharing, and coordination of care.
Māori Oral Heath Profile
The Māori Oral Health Profile is a series of reports produced each year that presents information about the Māori oral health provider workforce and services. The report highlights key features of Maori oral health provider services, their workforce, and potential areas to progress Māori participation.
The Group has produced reports for 2015, 2016, and is in the process of developing the 2017 report.