Collaboration with community health workers to promote oral health

Many hard to reach communities experience a lack of access to both dental services and oral health promotion education. Even for those newly insured, due to Massachusetts's health reform, some may not know what dental services are covered or how to best navigate the oral health system. In response, the Oral Health Foundation of MA partnered with community health workers (CHWs) to address the needs of communities in a systematic way. The oral health community embraced the notion of partnering with CHWs because of their unique connection to hard to reach communities as well as their experience with outreach, health promotion, and health system navigation. The Oral Health Foundation provided funding to the Massachusetts Association of Community Health Workers to facilitate the discussion between oral health experts and CHWs to create a workshop for CHWs that assists them with integrating oral health promotion into their daily outreach work. Stakeholders that created the workshop include CHWs from community health centers and from other community-based organizations, dental directors of community health centers, directors of the oral health departments at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Boston Public Health Commission, Massachusetts Dental Society, representatives from local dental schools, Headstart, and 2 legislators who were the lead sponsors for the oral health omnibus bill passed in January 2009. The collaboration of these stakeholders and desired outcomes will be highlighted throughout the presentation. Major components of the oral health workshop for CHWs will also be described.