Section 2: Dental Partnership Activities

Networks Created

The 12 Partnership grantees vary in their design, but all have created a network of dental schools, health departments, and community agencies to engage PLWH into dental care and train dental professionals to serve them. Across the 12 sites:

• Around 50 major community agencies are part of networks that operate in 13 states.
• Ten of the 12 projects are local and cover a city, county, or multi-county area. Two, those in Mississippi and Colorado, are statewide programs.

Partnership grantees use an array of techniques to make their networks of dental care work. Communications. Sharing of data. Coordinated planning. To illustrate:

• The University of Louisville worked with agencies funded under multiple Ryan White Parts. Notably, coordination efforts and awareness raising with other Ryan White programs enabled them to secure funding from their collaborators to help pay for items on a “wish list” of dental needs.
• The Louisiana State University project used an electronic medical records system created under Ryan White Special Projects and National Significance (SPNS) funding to streamline provider access to patient records.
• A Dental Liaison staff position was created at Boston University to facilitate communication and receipt of care. This staff position helps ensure that primary care doctors refer their HIV patients for dental care and facilitate follow-up that patients require. The Liaison also checks to see if dental patients have a primary care physician and make it to their appointments.