The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #42935

Joan I Gluch, PhD¹, Mary Frances Cummings, RDH, BS¹, and Peter Berthold, DDS, PhD, DMD². (1) Dental Care Systems, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, 4001 Spruce St, Philadelphia, PA 19104, 215-898-8429, gluchj@pobox.upenn.edu, (2) School of Dental Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 4001 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6003

Children in West Philadelphia lack access to oral health care due to the complex interplay of factors that include the local geographic distribution of dentists, lack of parental education and lack of perception of the need for dental care. We have selected a low income residential community with a population that is 85% non-white, including 80% African Americans, 4% Asian and 1% other. The primary goal of this project was to design and implement a model outreach oral health initiative program for minority pre-school and elementary school children in West Philadelphia. The program has three components: oral health promotional activities with 2100 children, their parents, community members and school district personnel; a dental referral and tracking program; and an oral health care initiative. The health promotion and referral programs have been implemented and educational materials for these programs will be showcased. Outcomes for the project, that include formative and summative evaluations and tracking information for children who have received needed dental care will be presented. An overview of the treatment initiative will be presented that includes our experiences with construction and delivery of a mobile dental screening/treatment vehicle, as well as the development of policies and procedures regarding operation of the mobile vehicle. Recommendations for future directions for the minority oral health initiative project will be provided based on data from experience gained from one year of operation of the program. Supported by a grant from the Health Resources Services Administration.

Learning Objectives:

• At the end of the session, participants will 1)Describe three components of the expansion of a school based oral health promotion program; 2)Describe the challenges in designing a mobile dental screening/treatment vehicle; 3)Discuss intervention strategies needed to work in collaboration with schools in an oral health promotional program

Keywords: School-Based Programs, Minority Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.