IFDH President's Report

January 2018

A Review of IFDH Halfway Through Our Term

It seems another year has flown by and the IFDH Board of Directors looks forward to another eventful year. Let's look at what we've been doing and what's coming up.

Our Members' Social Responsibility Programs

We have been moving forward with the Full Association Member Social Responsibility programmes after the successful 2017 conference in Florence. We have been very impressed with the efforts our delegates have made toward realising these important projects. Examples include, to name a few:

School programmes (Australia)
Oral Health promotion intervention programmes with students (Ireland and South Africa)
Vietnamese Dental Hygiene education (Japan)
Protocol for patients with neurological alterations – e.g.: Alzheimer's and Dementia (Spain)
Oral Health for the Elderly (Netherlands)
Quality of Life and Oral Health (Italy).

We look forward to the presentation of these projects at ISDH 2019 in Brisbane.

Research Grants Awarded

We congratulate our three most recent Research Award recipients. Click to see the website for details.

2019 ISDH in Brisbane Australia

The DHAA has been working hard on the many organizational aspects of the Symposium in August, 2019 in Brisbane. The website is available for expressions of interest and submissions of abstracts.

Abstract Submission: The dates for abstract submission are from February 19 to April 30, 2018, so send in your abstract if interested as soon as possible please. Go to the ISDH website.

World Dental Hygienist Awards Info & Deadline

The IFDH Sunstar World Dental Hygienist Award applications are to be submitted this year, deadline December 15, 2018. If you are considering applying for this award this year please review the guidelines on the IFDH website.

The Award categories are as follows:

Research - The entry may include both quantitative and qualitative analyses that provide important new insights that contribute to the body of knowledge in dental hygiene.

Activity/Project - The entry should provide details of the activities that have made a key contribution to patients, the community or to the general public.

Student Research - The entry may include both quantitative and qualitative analyses that provide important new insights that contribute to the body of knowledge in dental hygiene.

Student Activity/Project - The entry should provide details of the activities that have made a key contribution to patients, the community or to the general public. The positive impact of the activities on the health of a significant number of individuals should be empirically demonstrated.

If you have an interest in any of these areas please consider submitting your project. The award winning projects are presented at the ISDH in Brisbane and the winners are recognised at the Gala dinner during a special awards ceremony.

Let's Review Our 2016-19 Goals

As we begin the new year, I would like to reflect on our goals that we set at the 2016 ISDH, as we are at the half way mark for this term of the Board.

Promote oral health;
Increase member benefits;
Promote leadership development and advocacy within the Dental Hygiene and Allied Associations;
Promote international networking;
Promote Social Responsibility Programs;
Strengthen and increase corporate partnerships;
Build relationships with interdisciplinary associations;
Develop a strategic plan;
Support the development of the dental hygiene profession, and the dental hygiene undergraduate and post-graduate education internationally.

During the first half or our term we have been successful with goals 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 and 9:

On our website you will see the reflection of the programmes and partnerships we have established.
We have new Full Association Members and Allied members.
We have a strong social responsibility programme under development in many countries.
We have promoted Leadership through the Advanced Dental Leaders programme (available online).
We have awarded research scholarships and programmes that benefit members such as our webinars and Every Child has a tooth brush programme.

Our focus during the rest of our term will be on defining the strategic plan and further cementing partnerships and supporting the profession. Your focus as a member in taking advantage of what is offered, and offering any suggestions or feedback you may have that would be beneficial to our members and the above goals would be most appreciated.

Please remember to stay involved with IFDH in as many ways as possible. Your input and involvement is important to our future!

Robyn Watson RDH, BSc, MPA
President IFDH