Abilene Drake
Fall 2024
Situational Analysis
S- Places emphasis on early interventions and prevention of dental disease.
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W- May be less effective if parents do not comply and only a limited age group of children will be reached.
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O- Program could reach other professionals in the community such as pediatricians, physicians, other grade levels and even other community programs to make an impact on oral health.
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T- Program may be less interesting to parents than other programs children are already involved in such as sports, dance, musical programs, etc.
SWOT
Regulatory Force
From a regulatory stand point, child care facilities are monitored on federal and state levels to ensure the safety of children and employees. To effectively carry out a plan to educate on dental health in a childcare facility there will likely be avenues to visit, such as completing a background check, before being allowed to interact with children. Once a background check is cleared, there are often other levels of security that will be enforced such as checking into facility with government issued identification, filling out a form that states what vehicle you drove to the facility, and what time you enter and leave the building. These are all measures taken by IU’s childcare facility to ensure the safety of the children.
Social Force
The Campus Health Center places a focus on things such as vaccines, walk in clinic types of treatment such as a common cold, birth control options, and other preventative services such as those. They do not really have anything currently that specifically focuses on dental health. IUSD however, offers care for all ages, and students and staff often get discounts for those services. The focus of my program is to reach children, staff members, and families of students with children, to educate them on dental health importance. Often students have financial hardships that can make placing health care needs, on the backburner. By offering free educational services, and samples to children on campus this would alleviate the financial burden some students with children might feel. With access to the nearby dental school, if the children need further dental care, a referral is simple to hand out. Providing free services through this program opens an opportunity to refer to IUSD for extended services. By working together with them, ideally, we would provide patients when applicable, and they might provide free samples for the program.
Competitive Analysis
Give Kids a Smile is a program held at IUSD yearly in the month of February. This program travels around the country and began in 1980 after IUSD graduate Dr. Jeffry Dalin set it into place. The program focuses on preventative health for children, but they can provide further care through the Seal program. The Seal program for instance, provides preventative treatments on site such as dental cleanings, dental sealants, and when applicable fillings or more extensive dental treatment.
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Both programs offer a wide variety of services to children, but they do so by use of the dental insurance of the patient, many of which are on Medicaid health insurance. I aim to offer free dental health education with my program, therefore reaching a similar, yet different demographic of children. By accepting dental insurance, these programs are being funded for the services they provide, which certainly gives them a leg up so to speak. However, this is also a limiting factor for them since there are some children that do not have dental insurance.
Give Kids a Smile pictured to the left and IUSD Dental Sealant Program pictured to the right.