Community Engagement and Involvement

Aim

This additional component aims to include local communities in the research and development process to ensure that interventions are aligned with stakeholder needs. Community Engagement and Involvement (CEI) is a critically important component of this global oral health research programme. One of the key limitations with existing oral health interventions/policies is that they have been developed almost exclusively based on professional views with minimal or no input from a community perspective. As a consequence, they are often poorly aligned with community needs and priorities leading to ineffective and poorly sustained outcomes.

In this research programme, CEI will provide input to all aspects of the planned research. The process of community engagement, empowerment and co-production with community groups and civil society organisations will be central in the development, implementation, and evaluation of the planned research activities.

Planned Activities

CEI activities will commence in each country with a mapping exercise to assess the nature of their local communities and existing engagement mechanisms.
Community forums will be established in each country to provide on-going CEI input into the research. These forums will meet throughout each year and will be facilitated by the CEI coordinator. Training support will be offered to develop forum members skills and confidence as required. The community forums will be asked to comment on all aspects of the proposed research including study design, participant recruitment, consenting processes, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, data reporting and dissemination of findings.
The mapping exercise will inform the CEI strategy which will be developed by the team and the forums in each country.

Woman during Community Mapping Interviews in Santa Terezinha, Brazil

Local community events will be held three times a year to engage with wider community members with each phase of the planned studies. In addition, a programme of interactive visual and performing arts outreach activities (both face-to-face and online) will be developed as active methods to engage with local communities. Street plays, community fairs and other community events will be co-designed and co-produced.
CEI link workers will be recruited and supported in each country to act as oral health advocates and facilitators in their local communities. The link workers will liaise with local clinical dental teams and their communities to improve access to services, particularly for the most vulnerable members of their communities.

Meeting Community & Sub-Chief During Community Mapping in Makueni County, Kenya

The CEI activities will be evaluated using appropriate interactive methods to gauge their acceptability, impact and value to the programme.
At the end of the programme based upon the experiences and insights gained, a practical CEI toolkit will be developed to guide community action and input into future oral health research studies. The toolkit will have practical oral health examples of different community engagement methods and approaches used in the four countries.
The CEI component of this programme is being led by Ms Mirai Chatterjee (Self-Employed Women’s Association, India) and Professor Richard Watt (UCL).

Toothpaste Poster in Poshina Village, Gujarat During Community Mapping