1502-11460

National: This investment supports the North Dakota Department of Health (NDDH) to assess the state of oral health care needs in older adults, focusing on evaluation of state and national policy, educational materials, and areas that will improve access to oral health care services for this vulnerable population. Specifically, NDDH will assess and evaluate the impact of the Oral Health 2014 older adult project at six pilot sites, assess and evaluate national organizations on their current oral health involvement, interest, and best practices delivering care and engaging older adult populations in oral health; and expand the scope of the older adult care program in North Dakota. Older adult populations have limited access to oral health care, often due to physical, financial, and transportation constraints. As such, it is important that care is delivered where this population is, in an economically feasible way, and using proven evidence-based strategies. This group is well-positioned to lead this national effort. Using a network approach, NDDH developed a sustainable model for delivering care to older adults in long-term care facilities and raised awareness among the state about the importance of meeting the health needs of this population. Conducting a national scan and evaluation of existing programs and best practices to deliver care to the older adult population will create the foundation of a model to provide care to this vulnerable population and raise awareness and serve as an advocacy tool for the inclusion of a dental benefit in Medicare. $145,830 will support personnel time associated with building and sustaining partnerships with partners across the state, region, and nation; travel and meeting expenses necessary to conduct outreach to stakeholders; contractors charged with assessing and evaluating progress and outcomes of the growing network; and administrative costs associated with the implementation of this work. This proposal is aligned with Oral Health 2020 Goal 2: mandatory inclusion of an adult benefit in publicly-funded health insurance and the target that by 2020, Medicare includes a comprehensive dental benefit.