1712-13609

This investment supports the Lunder-Dineen Health Education Alliance of Maine, a program of Massachusetts General Hospital, to continue to refine a replicable educational model to advance oral health care for older adults that is effective, simple, survives staff turnover, and has broad-reaching policy and financial implications. This educational model has been piloted in two of the six Maine Veterans Homes sites with the long-term goal of applying the model widely across settings and the continuum of care. Specifically, the alliance will make adjustments to the curriculum based on the initial pilot phase; expand the project throughout the Maine Veterans Home system (four additional locations); and partner with the University of Maine Center on Aging to evaluate the project. The proposed project aligns with the Oral Health 2020 goal of inclusion of an adult dental benefit in publicly funded health insurance, and the target that by 2020, Medicare includes a comprehensive dental benefit. $85,680 will support curriculum changes, trainings, dissemination of findings, materials for the expanded pilot programs, and pilot advisory team meetings.