BOS honorary patron awarded OBE
For services to mental health and wellbeing in the dental profession.
Roz McMullan, Hon.Patron of the British Orthodontic Society and immediate past chair of the British Dental Association’s Northern Ireland Council, has been awarded an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List. The award is for services to mental health and wellbeing in the dentistry profession.
A retired consultant orthodontist, Roz has been involved in representative work most of her career. She is chair of Probing Stress in Dentistry NI, which works to raise awareness of mental health wellbeing in the dental workforce, and co-chair of DISCREET NI, a working group focused on the mental health and wellbeing of healthcare professionals in Northern Ireland. Roz is a former BDA President and was appointed Consultant Orthodontist in the WHSCT Altnagelvin, Tyrone County and Erne (later SWAH) hospitals, in 1991. She had an interest in treatment of children born with cleft lip and palate and established a cleft nurse liaison service to support the children and their families.
After completing stress awareness, suicide prevention and mental health first aid training, Roz set up and chaired the multi-agency group, Probing Stress in Dentistry, which aims to raise the issue of stress and poor mental health prevention in the dental workplace and provide safe, confidential signposting to professional help. She was a co-founder of the the Mental Health Wellness in Dentistry framework and helped develop the signposting resource, Support for Dental Teams.
“I really do feel honoured and humbled,” said Roz. “This is an award on behalf of all those teams I have worked in – the clinical teams who allowed me to work on this ‘extracurricular activity’, the management teams at the Trust and SPPG for their support, the Northern Ireland Deanery and Public Health Agency and the teams at BOS, BDA, BDA Benevolent Fund, Dentists’ Health Support Trust, FDI, MHWD and MINDSET UK . They have all supported me throughout my work on mental health and suicide prevention and I thank them for it.”
Editor’s note: Life can be incredibly difficult at times, but it will get better. If you are feeling overwhelmed, please reach out for help. Samaritans are available 24/7 – call 116 123