In June 2017, the Children’s Oral Health Program and Thunder Bay District Social Services Administration Board (TBDSSAB) formed a partnership with the goal of encouraging families with eligible children to access the Healthy Smiles Ontario (HSO) Program for children birth to 17 years.
TBDSSAB Caseworkers encourage families who do not identify as having found a dental provider to be contacted from the Children’s Oral Health Program. The Children’s Oral Health Program are connecting with families of eligible children and sharing information about the HSO program, offering registered dental hygiene preventive clinic services and fluoride varnish clinic services and/or help families to navigate in accessing a dental provider.
The caseworkers also provide families with age appropriate oral health information and a toothbrush for each eligible child. In addition, the Oral Health team also educated staff of TBDSSAB around the importance of good oral health for children, HSO program information, and data specific to the district’s population. To date, TBDSSAB and TBDHU’s partnership has been able to assist 518 children.
“The success of this collaboration has far surpassed our expectations. It is through the dedication and hard work of the TBDSSAB team that we have been so successful.” notes Megan Puksa, Dental Health Educator. “Not only are we more efficiently aligning needs with program service offerings, but we’re also building capacity for future work between our organizations.”
Due to the increased rate of eligible families receiving oral health care, the collaboration with TBDSSAB is expected to continue into 2019 and beyond.
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