1702-12970

California: Support to Central Valley Health Policy Institute (CVHPI) to act as a lead convener in the Fresno and greater San Joaquin Valley region. CVHPI’s continues work to develop a local network of residents, advocates, and health professionals working together to address oral health policy, and prioritizes efforts to reach community members directly to learn their views on access to oral health care and understanding of oral health issues and priorities. Primary activities to date have focused on the formation of core and stakeholder network, convening targeted focus groups for in-depth conversations with key stakeholders in oral health and health equity working in the Valley, conducting fieldwork and an expert scan to developed a survey that deeply assess oral health perceptions, knowledge, behavior, an new environmental scan of the San Joaquin Valley’s (SJV) 8 Counties on oral health systems, implementation of survey at 14 various sites located throughout the four participating counties in the central valley, and gathered/analyzed survey data from 659 residents from four SJV Counties to understand their perception, barriers, and needs of oral health. Through this engagement project, CVHPI has identified a number of key targets for local and state-level policy and program improvements (such as adult Denit-Cal coverage, improved access and cultural competence of participating providers, and increased access to oral health self-care education for all age groups). Oral Health 2020 investment of $100,800 will be used to design and support mobilization and increase the focus on oral health among residents and advocates. Priorities in the SJV Oral Health Community Plan include: 1) An Informed and Engaged Community: Develop a messaging campaign based on research and the policy objectives defined through a Statewide Oral Health Grassroots Policy Messaging Work-Group. Examples of policy messages would be Medicaid coverage for adults; Medicaid reimbursement, financing and delivery of oral health education in school and community settings, and oral health professional/paraprofessional scopes of practice. 2) Engage and encourage the San Joaquin Valley Public Health Consortium to include Oral Health as a Public Health issue. 3) Form and Engage a Regional and Statewide Oral Health Grassroots Policy Work-Group to be a multi-stakeholder advocacy effort to build public will and advocacy for improved oral health policies and programs in California’s poorest region. And 4) Ensure policy messages, educational materials and outreach strategies are culturally, educationally, and linguistically appropriate for target populations. This proposal aligns with the Oral Health 2020 Goal 6 of improving the public perception of the value of oral health to overall health and the target that oral health is increasingly included in health dialogue and public policy.