Flavell: Maori Dental Association Hui
te-pati-maori
Fri Mar 16 2007 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Flavell: Maori Dental Association Hui
Friday, 16 March 2007, 5:30 pm
Press Release: The Maori Party
Te Ao Marama : Maori Dental Association Hui a Tau The Millennium Hotel - Rotorua Te Ururoa Flavell, Member for Waiariki Friday 16 March 2007; 4pm
As I understand it, this Hui-A-Tau will focus on the 2006/07 strategic plan: Kia ahu ngatahi ai tatou – let us take the journey together.
Te Arawa is an ideal context from which to consider this journey, because of the experience that we have here in having hosted the first University of Otago Maori dental programme. This was an initiative of many – a relationship between Te Waka o Te Arawa, Tunohopu Health Centre, the School Dental Services and the University School of Dentistry.
An initiative for low income Maori in Rotorua supervised by Associate Professor John Broughton, which offered dental students the opportunity to provide services in dental checkups, teeth-cleaning; pain relief, fillings and some extractions.
Sounds painful to me actually, but then, what would I know! My job extracts wisdom of a different nature than yours…and any drilling down into the requirements of your profession that you may extract from my korero; is probably just mouthing off.
Anyway – brace yourself – after that false start, I think it’s best that I brush up on some of the issues, to give us something to chew over before tea.
Seriously though; I am pleased to be here today, to be able to spend some time, focusing on the state of Maori oral health.
Although I could certainly not say I am pleased with the shocking statistics in this area.
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Who could be anything but shocked with the reality that our tamariki are three times more likely to have missing, decayed or filled teeth than the national average?
Or that in 2004, less than 52% of five year olds were free of decay?
All that we know about child oral health is that it not only gives us an indication of what we can expect their oral health to be like as adults – but it may also have other impacts such as cardiovascular disease.
The oral health crisis is particularly top of our minds here in Rotorua as we are currently facing an acute shortage of dentists – with currently only fifteen practising dentists available to cope with a huge workload.
So perhaps that was another reason behind holding the Hui-a-Tau here in Rotorua – to woo you all to the world of Waiariki!
I hasten to also add, that the crisis of oral health we are currently immersed in – is not just about tooth decay and gum disease; it is not just about recruitment and retention issues of the workforce – but it also apparent after recent reviews of the School Dental Service and Maori Child Oral Health Services that this is a sector in need of strategic direction, rebranding and major re-configuration.
So what to do about it?
Well although I try not to be TeArawa-centric; it is what I know best – and so I’m thinking about Tipu Ora and the work they’ve been doing with a marae-based preschool dental service for the last decade or so.
Their mobile service goes into our kohanga and kura kaupapa Maori - reducing the need for our whanau to travel – and eliminating that all too common problem of DNA (the ‘Do Not Attends’).
And this is where I want to mihi to you, Te Ao Marama, for the leadership you have demonstrated since you were first established in 1996.
The campaign that you have invested in, to promote outreach services, including those based at marae, has been a vital strategy to reduce oral health disparities.
I looked at the 2004 report, Kia pakiri mai ngä mahi, which mentioned the success of models such as Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga oranga niho which also promotes the value of services in isolated rural areas.
And this is where I want to really promote the key message of Te Paati Maori, in focussing on wellness programmes, determined by whanau, within their own communities.
Our vision is a nation in which all people achieve their health potential.
Every day - whether in the House of Representatives or in the homes of our people – we are motivated by the tragic reality that Mâori experience a higher prevalence and incidence of disease.
We have to look to sustainable long-term solutions - to addressing the determinants of health and well-being such as poverty, housing, income, discrimination and the environment.
And it is precisely because of this ‘whole-of-life’ approach, that we have raised our heads up high this week, to say we want to create the possibility of a nation where children are not hurt.
I don’t need to go into the gruesome child abuse statistics or reports of gross domestic violence, to share with you the urgency of doing something about violence.
We took the action we did this week, to send a sign, that violence is not acceptable. We want to make it possible for a new culture to be born – a new climate created where we do not hit children.
What we have seen in the outburst that has emerged following the legislative debate associated with the repeal of section 59, is how desperately the country needs to have the debate about parenting; about the care of children; about violence.
We have received pleas to tell the Government to stay out of the homes of the people – and yet we have to wonder – isn’t that the same argument that has been extended for violence of any sort over the years –that what goes on behind closed doors should be no-one else’s business.
Some people have suggested that sending out a signal about smacking is an invasion of one’s rangatiratanga and I would ask in return, when did smacking become seen as an expression of the attributes of a rangatira?
There have been protests that we are allowing the state to intervene in areas which should be the responsibility of whanau. I couldn’t agree more – but the sad reality behind our statistics is that we do need to set standards; to create aspirations; to develop ideals to lift our vision.
My point in raising this debate at this forum, is simply to say, that if we anticipate a future of living in good health, we must see whanau ora as the outcome of health and well-being across all spheres.
We cannot see the gross oral health disparities we see, without making the connections to the income disparities, the lack of health education, difficulties in transport and access to health services, and other factors which impact on oral hygiene.
These connections which underlie the holistic nature of health, were demonstrated in a speech that Coretta Scott King gave in May 1968 to a Mother's Day March of welfare recipients. The March was part of the Poor People's Campaign, which followed on the heels of the assassination of her husband, Dr Martin Luther King. Mrs King said, and I quote:
I must remind you that starving a child is violence. Suppressing a culture is violence. Neglecting school children is violence. Punishing a mother and her family is violence. ... Ignoring medical needs is violence. Contempt for poverty is violence. Even the lack of will power to help humanity is a sick and sinister form of violence.
We believe that the fulfilment of the promises in Te Tiriti o Waitangi will be achieved when Maori health and well-being issues are addressed as a complete and comprehensive project.
We believe that the fulfilment of the promises in Te Tiriti o Waitangi will be achieved when hapû and iwi are able to achieve self-determination across the board, from whânau involvement in health care plans to hapû and iwi at the governance level.
We believe that the fulfilment of the promises in Te Tiriti o Waitangi when Maori enjoy the highest standards and exemplary outcomes of dental care and oral health.
By Gum, that’s something worth chewing over in these next few hours!
Tena tatou katoa.
ENDS
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