Empower- Support - Develop
Empower /Support /Develop, this is the ADHA brand. I decided to use it as my "theme" for this year, to continue to promote the ADHA/ODHA brand. Incredibly, this is what I have received from serving as president of the Ohio Dental Hygienists' Association (ODHA). Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve! As I have said in previous messages this is a very exciting time for hygienists!

Who read the August issue of Access magazine from ADHA I read it with growing excitement for each article, certain that it was written just for the hygienists of Ohio! The lead story is about the "Health Objectives for the Nation" currently known as Healthy People 2020. This is an agenda that dental hygienists should be plugged into as our position is by nature one that promotes health and healthy behavior. The very next article promotes an online Public Dental Health course to prepare dental hygienists to work in safety net settings provided by the University of Missouri-Kansas City. This course seems to be a natural extension of the Oral Health Access Supervision Program (OHASP) course that is required to attain a permit to participate in this program. While it is geared toward hygienists in Missouri and Kansas it includes helpful modules for hygienists everywhere who are interested in helping to bring preventive care to underserved populations such as: School Based and Portable Dentistry and Funding Public Health Activities. The very next article talks about Health Homes. This is a concept that has enthused Ohio s new Director of Health and one that ODHA s lobbyists and leadership have been developing, to ensure that dental care is included. We are headed in the right direction! We all need to think, think, think of ways to create jobs and bring dental hygiene care to everyone in Ohio with our new opportunity known as OHASP. How can we Develop partnerships How can we Empower hygienists to think and move outside of the operatory How can we Support these efforts

This seems like an appropriate time to highlight a new dental clinic that opened for business on September 7, 2011. The Look Up Dental Clinic which has the President of the Knox Licking component, Deena Robinson, as coordinator. This clinic is providing FREE dental care to residents of Newark, Ohio (home of Cherry Valley Lodge, a place near and dear to our hearts!) I look forward to hearing success stories from Deena.

As this exciting year of service as President comes to a close, I would like to thank the exceptional executive council who has served this association with thoughtfulness and creativity. All six of you have helped make my time in office much more empowering with your support. Thank you to President Elect- Deborah Tennyson (Columbus), Immediate Past President- Angie Demko (Lorain), Speaker of the House- Joyce Beathard-Lind (Mad River), Vice President- Mary Barry Herrmann (Southern), Treasurer- Rachel Henry (Columbus) and Secretary-Nikki Raver (Hocking Valley).

In case you didn t know, a couple of our officers do double duty by also serving as council chair persons, such as Joyce as House of Delegates council and Mary as Annual Session Planning council. (By the way, Mary also served this year as Total Development Weekend council chair) Our association functions, thanks to the leadership of our council chair persons and the valuable committees implementing our action plans with them! We are lucky to have Suzy Savanick at the helm for our Student council and Terri Orban leading Dental Hygiene Practice council. Thank you to all council chairs, which are the WORKING backbones of ODHA!

My intention of sharing this information with you was to share my gratitude to these selfless friends, but I will take it a step further and invite YOU to join in helping to Empower, Support and Develop your association by volunteering. You need not start big; we have many worker bee positions on committees. Take the time to review our SCOPES manual and see where you would like to join us!

Speaking of selfless friends, every time the Board of Trustees (BOT) meets, I am grateful to all the Trustees for taking the time to care about supporting our association by keeping informed, making decisions, and traveling to the meetings on behalf of us all. This important link between ODHA and our components is invaluable. The activities of our components are awesome opportunities for empowerment, support and development of hygienists! Just this month I see that Cleveland is coordinating another Oral Cancer Walk! What a great way to bring hygienists together while educating the public on a very important health issue! Cleveland does Rock! So does Akron, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Hocking Valley, Knox-Licking, Lorain, Mad River, Mansfield, Muskingum Valley, North Central, Northeastern, Northwestern, Southern, Stark County, Toledo and Tri-County! Thank you -each and every one of you- who volunteer your time so selflessly to keep our association Empowering, Supporting and Developing our members and the hygienists of Ohio!