Children’s Tooth Brushing and DIY Happiness projects take top prizes

THE WINNERS have been announced for this year’s Insurance Corporation Healthcare Bursary.

The top prize of £2,000 was awarded to head of the Children’s Dental Service Sarah Lyle and oral health educator/dental nurse Helen Long. Their project will result in the introduction of a supervised tooth-brushing programme to be piloted in two pre-schools for the three-plus-year-old children. It is hoped that increasing frequency and quality of tooth brushing will reduce the cases of dental decay – one of the world’s most prevalent childhood diseases.

The runner-up was Health Promotion manager Yvonne Le Page, she received a £1,000 prize for her entry, which plans to promote mental health and wellbeing. The bursary would be used to fund a pilot ‘DIY Happiness’ project, an eight-week course for women looking at all aspects of improving mental health through practical activities.

Chairman of the Insurance Corporation, Peter Walpole, said: ‘Our winning projects demonstrate the diverse nature of the island’s healthcare provision and how the Insurance Corporation Healthcare Bursary can be used to assist two very different groups of islanders.

‘It was also marvellous to hear from last year’s winners and see how far they have come since being awarded the bursary in 2012 for their projects.’ 

HSSD Acting Chief Officer Malcolm Nutley said: ‘This was my first experience of being on the judging panel. I was very impressed with the enthusiasm of the staff in entering the competition and in the presentation of their ideas.’