 Hello – my name is Thelma. Welcome to my basic website created simply to share an idea.
Background to the idea:
When I worked for the NHS as an oral health promoter, I saw first-hand the difficulties experienced by families and carers of children with special needs when visiting the dentist. I also observed the challenges the dental team faced when trying to overcome these difficulties. In the summer of 2008, with the help of these same parents, children and the dental team, I began to create a resource with them that we hoped would help reduce the anxiety often associated with visiting the dentist, especially for children or individuals with sensory challenges.
I learnt a lot, experimented frequently, and the resource developed over time, but for many children and their families the ideas worked. The purpose of this website is to share these ideas and activities with parents, teachers, health professionals and the whole dental team, and to encourage them to discover how, by working together with the individual needs of the child at the centre, and by using a common resource, it is possible to achieve a positive outcome for all.
The material is copyright to West Sussex Health for whom I worked as an Oral Health Promoter for 21 years before retiring in August 2010. The concept of the multidisciplinary approach to preparing an autistic child for visiting the dentist gained their Innovations Award in 2009. On the day I retired, I received the NHS Innovations South East Innovator Award, the prize for this being a small amount of funding for use in re-designing the resource for the web.
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