G-2306-18415

The University of Minnesota School of Dentistry (UMSD) is Minnesota’s only dental school and the only dental school in the northern tier of states between Wisconsin and the Pacific Northwest. USDM advances health through scientific discovery, innovative education, and the highest-quality care for all communities.

A recent pilot study screened patients (n=175) within the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry predoctoral clinic, revealing that 77% of respondents had at least one unmet social need. A comparison of annual household incomes of respondents earning less than $40K with those earning $40K or more, demonstrated statistically significant differences in unmet social needs for housing. UMSD’s screening protocol incorporates Geospatial links zip-codes to unmet social needs which provides information of communities with higher unmet social needs. As a result, USDM can target their advocacy efforts for improved community resources.

With this grant, UMSD plans to survey 1500 patients to better understand how SoDH factors intersect with health literacy and some health conditions at the zip code level. With this information, UMSD will plan appropriate interventions at individual and community levels through direct service supports and/or advocacy campaigns to improve oral health access and status. UMSD will incorporate routine screening for SoDH and training on this topic in their dental school programs and will share their experiences so other dental schools will consider doing the same.

Also, as part of this grant, USDM will establish a Community Advisory Panel (CAP) consisting of Social Worker from the University of Minnesota and two representatives from the Minneapolis-St. Paul community and community-based organizations that provide direct support/assistance to meet patients' social needs. To ensure the interventions and advocacy strategy are based on community need, the CAP will meet regularly to review data and recommend interventions. Additionally, USDM will hire a Community Health Worker or social worker to help patients better navigate community resources to reduce individual unmet social need by identifying community resources and connecting people to resources.

The budget for this request is $121,504, with about half of the request allocated toward staff time and about 20% allocated to incentives for survey participants. An additional $12,000 is requested for conference support. This request represents less than 1% of the organization’s overall budget.