by Brian Souza, Managing Director, DentaQuest
Foundation
I recently had the opportunity to attend the 2014
School Based Health Alliance Convention in Seattle; DentaQuest Foundation was
pleased to be a sponsor.
This is a meeting of nearly
1,000 school-based health providers, administrators, educators, and advocates.
While oral health can often be left off the table in important health care
discussions, John Schlitt, interim president, began the proceedings by talking
about SBHA’s important mission to bring primary, mental, and oral health care
to the nation's children. The room erupted in agreement.
While their primary mission is education, schools are
also an important resource for children’s health, including oral health, and
for reducing health disparities by bringing care to where all children spend
the majority of their time. School-based oral health education, screenings,
assisted referral, and delivery of oral preventive care services provide
equitable, reliable entry into long-term oral health care and assist parents by
reducing the need to take time from work and find transportation to and from
dental appointments. Children who receive care in schools are often an entry
point for others in the family to connect with an oral healthcare provider.
Image via blogs.southtownstar.com
DentaQuest sees this occurring across the country
through the work of our grantees and partners. Head Start programs
are introducing young families to basics of home oral health care and are
connecting children with ongoing oral health care in their neighborhoods. In
California, the LA Trust for Children’s Health is
piloting sustainable models for delivering in-school screenings of elementary
school children and pairing children in need of care with community resources.
Services include screening, sealants, fluoride, varnishes, and oral health
education, which are all provided at school sites. The school-based clinic at
the Whitefoord School in Georgia
is delivering full-service dentistry to underserved populations in Southeast
Atlanta, and in partnership with Emory University, is helping train dental
students, dental hygiene students, and dental assisting students for future
work in the community. And this fall, children entering elementary school for
the 2014-2015 school year will complete a certificate of oral health as one of
their start of school health forms thanks to the efforts of the District
of Columbia Children’s National Medical Center and its oral health
coalition. This will help school nurses identify children who lack access to
oral health services and to develop an overall picture of the oral health of
children across the District.
We have an opportunity to expand and amplify these
efforts by working to integrate oral health in school based health models
across the nation. DentaQuest Foundation is committed to doing just that.
Our Oral Health 2020 campaign
is focused on eradicating dental disease in children and improving oral health
across the lifespan. One of our core targets is to see oral health incorporated
into primary education. The combination of education, prevention, and access to
care has the potential to nearly eliminate tooth decay in school-aged children,
putting these children on a path to a healthy, disease-free future.
The School Based Health Alliance is building grassroots
support for policies, programs, and funding to expand and strengthen
SBHCs. These conversations strengthen oral health and health care policy,
broaden access to quality care and prevention, align financial investments in
oral health, and expand the integration of oral health into community-based
systems. We believe that is an important mission and important work, and we are
honored to be a part of it.