01 July 2025
Dental assistants (DA) project update
To progress work on the DA Recruitment and Retention Project, our CEO Ilsa Hampton met with Marty Thomas, CEO of the Dental Assistants Professional Association (DAPA), at the ADAVB offices last week.
Key themes from the meeting were firstly, to complete a systems map of all stakeholders influencing outcomes in relation to dental assistants. Using insights from the ADAVB DAPA workshop with practice owners and people who have worked as DAs, the work then progressed to map a possible pilot project in Melbourne.
Features of the pilot include resources and other support for dental practices around strengthening workplace culture, connecting with job networks, utilising the successful DAPA pre-employment training model, and linking with TAFEs to support traineeships for candidates. DAPA will also be available to support workplaces that accept a trainee.
The work progresses in earnest to build viable models that can be scaled, and to support sustained change in meeting this challenge. Collaboration with DAPA is essential for this project, and engaging our members working in private practices as well as community health organisations in the public sector is all part of our planning.
Stay tuned for further information about the pilot opportunity that may well be coming to your area!
