Suzette Porter
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

REPORT OF THE FIRST REGIONAL IDEALS CONFERENCE
Held in conjunction with the Dentistry Under the Sun annual conference of the Queensland Branch of the Australian Dental Association
Hyatt Coolum Resort near Brisbane September 28 - October 1, 2006

This year I decided to increase the awareness of IDEALS and attract some more Australian members by using this conference as a forum for an IDEALS mini-congress. Initially I contacted ADAQ to see if I could attach a half/full day ethics meeting before or after Dentistry Under the Sun (DUS) and for the advertising etc to be part of the conference.  When I suggested this, they countered by offering me the chance to incorporate two joint IDEALS/ADAQ sessions within the body of the conference itself.  This had the benefit of not involving any costs or administration work for me but gave IDEALS same amount of exposure without risk.  My involvement could be concentrated on the sessions themselves. I decided on the topic of Volunteering in Dentistry because of the local interest in this subject.  (The format, content and speakers for the sessions are listed below.)  Sinikka Salo, Bruce Kidd and Suzette Porter were the IDEALS members who were present. Sinikka and Suzette were speakers. Several IDEALS pamphlets were included in the registration package including IDEALS membership details, Toronto Congress and the flyer for Justice in Oral Health Care.

Outcome
The DUS conference had nearly 250 registrants (dentists, hygienists, therapists, dental assistants). The two sessions that were allocated to Volunteering in Dentistry were both parallel session – the first had one other concurrent session and the second session had two others at the same time, one of which was the main speaker for the conference. The attendance at the first session was very pleasing – well over 150 people. The second session dropped to about 20 attendees but these were very interested and the session was informal and the discussion vigorous. The feedback to the conference organisers was very positive.

Future
 ADAQ is interested in having an ethics topic at each DUS in future and in the New Year we will be discussing the 2007 conference in Cairns.

 

Membership
 At the meeting, several people approached me about membership. I will be following up individually with each of them and including a Toronto flyer in all suitable correspondence with interested people from now until May.

 

Comments
 I think it was a valuable introduction and I will follow-up next year.  It may be a useful starting point in other countries to link in with a local conference and arrange an IDEALS session on a topic of local interest


 
 
 

PROGRAM DETAILS

VOLUNTEERING IN DENTISTRY
Saturday 30th September 2006

This will be undertaken in two parts. The first part (11.00am – 12.30pm) will be to outline several styles of volunteering:
(a) UQ dental students working overseas in conjunction with a wider health project,
(b) Queensland dentists from Tzu Chi Foundation working locally to provide health care to refugees,
(c) Training of overseas specialists as part of Overseas Aid by ANZAOMS,
(d) Cross national collaboration to provide dentistry (the experience of Finland and Japan)
(e) The results of a longitudinal study examining the development of altruism and volunteering in students at UQ Dental School.
  
The second part of the programme (1.30pm – 3.00 pm) will be a forum on volunteering in dentistry with a panel of speakers drawn from the above programmes discussing common problems, challenges, differing solutions and sharing enthusiasms. Questions for discussion will be both moderated and drawn from the audience.

Participants will include Dr John Arvier, Mr Alvin Chye, Dr Shari Daniels, Mr Michael Ghobrial, Dr Alice Lu  Mr Nigel Maher, Mr John Martin, , Dr Suzette Porter, Dr Sinikka Salo, Dr Veronika Valena.

This forum is undertaken by collaboration between ADAQ and IDEALS.  IDEALS is The International Dental Ethics and Law Society established to foster an international dialogue on the values guiding the practice of oral health care. This dialogue is intended to be multidisciplinary, involving the disciplines of dentistry and auxiliary oral health sciences on the one hand, and those of ethics and law on the other, as well as related disciplines such as philosophy, the humanities and the social sciences. The Society is open to all interested in partaking in this dialogue
OUTLINE OF PART 1
Duration Topic Presenters & Organisation
5 minutes

Introduction –

There are many different ways by which dentists contribute to society. The foundation for altruism is laid before graduation and firstly the results of research into the attitudes and activities of two cohorts of undergraduates will be presented.  The examples of volunteering from four different perspectives will be presented in this first part:

  • episodic treatment for an overseas community;

  • regular treatment for a domestic community;

  • a programme of ongoing education for overseas specialists and

  • intergovernmental cooperation in a large project. 

Short questions will be accepted  at end of the session,  with the main questions in Part 2 in the afternoon.

Suzette Porter

International Dental Ethics and Law Society IDEALS

UQ School of Dentistry

 
15 min presentation This group will present one example of student involvement in volunteering in Bangladesh during the Christmas vacation. Give an outline of who you became involved, how you raised money for the trip, your preparation for the trip, what you did on the trip and the context of your activity as a component of the whole trip.

Michael Ghobrial
John Martin
Alvin Chye
Nigel Maher

Christian Dental Fellowship

UQ School of Dentistry
15 min presentation Volunteer dental activities can be performed within a domestic situation. This presentation will discuss the involvement of Buddist dentists and students in giving dental care to refugees and asylum seekers in Brisbane. It will cover the rationale for the need for volunteers in this context, the negotiation between three parties QH, QPASTT/MDA, Tzu Chi to plan and undertake the program, the actual day’s activities and the results of the services delivered.

Alice Lu 

Buddist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation
15 min presentation Volunteer and relief activities are also involved in preparing and training overseas dentists to provide care within their local environment. This section will outline the activities in training dentists by the ANZAOMS. It will give the background to the training, funding arrangements and evaluation of outcome.

John Arvier

Co-chair Overseas Aid Committee

ANZAOMS (Aust & NZ Assoc of Oral & MaxFac Surgeons)
15 min presentation Assistance in oral health care can occur at the level of intergovernmental cooperation. This presentation will discuss the project on wellbeing and welfare technology of older persons in Japan undertaken in collaboration with Finnish Wellbeing Center.

Sinikka Salo

Finnish Wellbeing Center

IDEALS
15 min presentation How actively involved are undergraduate dental students in volunteering? The result of research in 2001 and 2006.  This will present the range of activities, the amount of time spent on them and the attitude towards continuing activities after graduation.

Shari Daniels
Veronika Valena

UQ School of Dentistry
10 minutes

Questions for presenters as whole
Wrap up and discussion/invitation to Part 2 after lunch

 Suzette Porter
OUTLINE OF PART 2

This part will be conducted as a panel discussion. As this session is concurrent with another sessions. The main idea of this part of the programme is to discuss ethical issues in volunteering, problems that are likely to be encountered, comparison of solutions. It will also highlight how anyone interested in volunteering can get started on a project or can join an existing program.

Suzette Porter will be the facilitator and will direct prepared questions to the panel and some individuals in the audience.  The audience will be encouraged to ask questions as well.

Wrap-up will include 5 minutes on ADA Special Purposes Committee for Dental Volunteers (ADAInc) by Paul Kotala and 5 minutes on IDEALS by Suzette Porter
PROPOSED QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

Impact of volunteering

  • Does a volunteer work encourage the state authorities to identify pockets of need and improve access to special groups or does it permit/encourage authorities to abdicate their responsibilities whilst someone else is providing the care?

  • Are oral health disparities merely unfortunate or also unfair? If unfair, who is obligated to help resolve the problem?

  • In the Australian culture is dental philanthropy seen as paternalism or generosity and how do you tell the difference?

Ethical implication to overseas and cross-cultural volunteering

  • What ethical problems may be encountered by permitting students to treat patients in developing countries?

  • Is it possible to get true ‘informed consent’ for the interventional procedures being carried out, frequently on non-English speakers?

  • What degree of approval/sanctioning by host governments/health authorities should be sought?  Are there requests/requirements that are difficult to comply with?

  • What is the responsibility of dental volunteers when you encounter evidence of torture or brutality in the patients you are treating – particularly if you are overseas at the time?

  • If the ‘sponsors’ and/or participants are a part of a religious group, what is acceptable and what is unacceptable in promoting the religion as part of the volunteer activities?

Practical suggestions for volunteers

  • What experience do you have of ‘free loaders” either patients, gatekeepers such as other volunteer groups, or dental workers? How do you handle these people?

  • What are the key non-clinical skills needed by dental volunteers?

  • What training should be undertaken by dental volunteers?

  • Should altruistic activities be a formal part of education of dental students? 

Sponsorship of volunteer activities

  • Sponsorship forms a major part of most volunteer activities. How do you handle the advertising that sponsors usually want as ‘payment’?

  • Can sponsorship become a burden rather than a benefit?