Oral Care in Continuing Care Settings: Collaborating to Improve Policies & Practices

The speaker is an Associate Professor heads the Division of Preventive Dentistry and Oral Health Promotion in the Faculty of Dentistry at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is a mid-career clinician (dentist) who made a career shift to academia following 10 years of private practice in rural Nova Scotia. Her clinical observations in practice have led to a path of research that focuses on improving the health of vulnerable and marginalized populations. Building from an MA in philosophy (bioethics), Dr. McNally's research is grounded in social justice. It focuses largely on frail older adults and is currently expanding to include Inuit Canadians, immigrants and refugees, as well as personal caregivers. Her biggest contributions centre on building interdisciplinary teams and community partnerships with careful attention to involving end-users and decision makers as an integral part of the research process. Her research focuses on outcomes that inform policy and practice. She is especially interested in exploring how dental knowledge is understood, integrated and applied within relevant systems of health (i.e., primary and continuing care) and community (i.e., Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut Inuit communities of Northern Labrador).