Did you know World Mental Health Day is October 10? It’s no secret that dentistry is a demanding profession, which is why it is so important all members of the dental team take care of their mental health. We spoke to Associate Professor Matt Hopcraft, co-founder of Mindful Smiles Hub, about the mental health and wellbeing support for the dental community.
Associate Professor Matt Hopcraft says Mindful Smiles Hub was launched in December last year – resulting from research he led, which had its genesis
in the pandemic.
“In 2020/2021, particularly in Victoria and across the country, it was an extremely stressful time,” Matt says. “We were speaking to a lot of practitioners really worried about the impact it was having on their wellbeing. But we also didn’t really have good data on mental health and wellbeing of dental practitioners. There had been a few small studies, and other researchers were looking at health workers, particularly those working in hospitals, such as doctors and nurses. But no one was looking at dental practitioners.”
A team was assembled, which included Matt (who is a dental public health academic at the Melbourne Dental School), Dr Roisin McGrath (a Senior Lecturer at the Melbourne Dental School and the Director of the Bachelor of Oral Health Program), Dr Nicole Stormon (a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland and Ahpra registered oral health therapist) and Professor Gordon Parker AO (founder of the Black Dog Institute), who conducted a research project, looking at approximately 1500 dental practitioners across Australia.
“The research project showed very high levels of mental health problems,” Matt says. “Around 1 in 10 with a diagnosis of depression, around 1 in 10 with a diagnosis of anxiety disorder. Around 1 in 4 had symptoms consistent with burnout. 1 in 6 had recent thoughts of suicide.
“It was alarming data and led us to this idea that we really needed to have something that existed to help practitioners in terms of supporting their mental health and wellbeing. We know dental associations have programs for their members and the Dental Board has something for all registered practitioners. However, we also know everyone isn’t a member of a professional association and I think some people are worried about using the Board’s dental practitioner support program because of the link to registration.”
Matt says a group of like-minded individuals connected who wanted to create something that was broader for practitioners, which is where the idea for Mindful Smiles Hub came from.
“A lot was driven by Dr Peter Duke at ADAWA, who had been looking at information that had come out of the UK, so we used that framework to develop Mindful Smiles,” he says.
The team has published four papers (with more in the works) and has pulled together resources to create the Mindful Smiles Hub website, which is packed full of information, wellbeing advice and links for where to find support.
Matt says the Mindful Smiles team is also talking about the idea of ongoing research. “We didn’t look at dental students, dental assistants and practice managers in previous data and I think there is an opportunity there,” he says.
He adds the resources on the website are freely available for everyone in the dental team to use. “It isn’t designed to solve people’s problems, but to provide more understanding and to point them in the right direction of where they can go for that support,”’ he explains. “We want to get people to their general practitioner or to a support line, so what we encourage people to do is be aware of the site and if they do find themselves at a time when they are experiencing struggles, they know where they can go to find some support.”
To find out more about Mindful Smiles Hub, go to the website, mindfulsmiles.org
If you need help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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