The Fono brings together The West Fono Health Trust (Henderson), The Peoples Centre (Manurewa), St Patrick’s Square Medical and Dental (Auckland city), Pacific Horizon Healthcare (Blockhouse Bay) and Waitakere Family Start (West Auckland). By pooling resources and combining organisations, Auckland’s high-needs populations have readily accessible, affordable, quality health services available.

The organisation began as a pioneering Pacific Health Organisation a quarter of a century ago, when heath and socio-demographic disparities between Pacific, Maori, and non-Pacific ethnic groups in New Zealand were becoming more evident.

The essence of the organisation is ‘Caring is our Culture’. While The Fono brand still confirms the identity of the organisation, it is dealing with more migrants from across the globe.

The Fono CEO Tevita Funaki said the new brand reflects the strategic direction of the organisation, and builds awareness of The Fono’s services across medical, dental, pharmacy, community and social areas – many of these are free for those who need it most.

To read the full media release from The Fono, go to: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE1408/S00074/pioneering-pacific-health-organisation-re-launches.htm

Allied Health Aotearoa New Zealand provides a forum for representatives of allied health professional associations to work together to:

• Promote the value of allied health professional services
• Make representations and submissions on issues of common interest to allied health professions
• Develop effective working relationships with government and other key stakeholders
• Take an active approach and be involved in the development, implementation and monitoring of relevant health policies.
• Be a key gateway for engaging with the allied health sector

The intervention was a cluster randomised trial at the dental practice level. Intervention dental practices were provided with a longitudinal technology-assisted intervention, that included a series of interactive educational cases and motivational email cues to remind dental provides to complete guideline-concordant brief behavioral counseling at the point of care.

In all dental practices, exit cards were given to the first 100 consecutive patients, in which tobacco users provided contact information for a six month follow-up telephone survey.

A total of 564 tobacco-using dental patients completed a six month follow-up survey. Among intervention patients, 55% reported receiving advice to quit tobacco, and 39% of control practice patients reported receiving advice to quit tobacco. Six-month tobacco use quit rates were not significantly different between the intervention and control groups.

The authors conclude that, although they increased rates of cessation advice delivered in dental practices, there was no evidence of long-term abstinence in smokers.

This is an open access article and is available to read in full text at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6831/13/13/abstract

Houston, T. K., et al. (2013). Cluster-randomized trial of a web-assisted tobacco quality improvement intervention of subsequent patient tobacco product use: A national dental PBRN study. BMC Oral Health, 13:13.

Of those who returned the first stage survey (n=362), intentions to ask and assist patients were high. The 273 hygienists who returned the second stage survey assisted an estimated 1,394 patients to quit smoking in 1 week. 

The authors conclude that dental hygienists may be a viable and willing avenue for addressing smoking, supported by assistance to increase skills and confidence around asking sensitively about smoking, building rapport, and assisting patients to quit smoking. 

To view the full abstract and for information on how to access the full text, go to:
http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/9/1040.abstract or contact your DHB library, or organisational or local library for assistance.

Freeman, T., et al. (2012). What factors need to be addressed to support dental hygienists to assist their patients to quit smoking? Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 14(9), 1040-1047.