G-2308-19536

The Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy (Schuyler Center) is a statewide, nonprofit, policy analysis and advocacy organization working to shape policies to improve health, welfare and human services for all New Yorkers, especially children and families experiencing poverty.

The Schuyler Center received grant funding from DentaQuest in years past, however, the organization has not received a grant since 2019 (OPEN). In the proposal, the organization notes that there is growing understanding, in New York, of the urgent need to expand and strengthen the oral health workforce in many different communities, and in many different settings and sectors. Policy conversations on this issue have largely been limited to members of the oral health professions, health centers, hospitals, and state and local health departments. Largely missing from these conversations are consumers of care, particularly low-income, BIPOC, people with disabilities, and other historically marginalized New Yorkers who have been disproportionately harmed by New York’s oral health workforce shortage, along with grassroots community leaders, educators, parents, community health workers and others significantly impacted by this shortage.

This proposal outlines the coming year as a unique moment of opportunity to address New York’s persistent oral health workforce challenge. Legislation to create the profession of dental therapy has been introduced in New York and legislative bill sponsors in both houses understand the importance of oral health, its intersections with other professions, the complex challenges associated with the proposed legislation, and the need to ensure directly impacted consumers are meaningfully engaged in efforts around building and passing this proposal. A new chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, appointed in 2023, is responsive to community needs and willing to entertain scope of practice changes. Furthermore, the Higher Education Committee is the committee of jurisdiction for health workforce laws. Notably, these opportunities also bring danger in that if proposals advance too quickly, before steps have been taken to thoroughly educate and engage broad support, they could meet with concerted opposition from powerful interest groups, which could set back efforts for years.

To respond to the rapidly changing landscape in NY, the Schuyler Center will develop three workgroups to inform its project work:

Concerned individuals and orgs – no limitations on the number of participants; this group will be engaged for educational sessions, webinars, survey participation, and will receive educational materials, such as reports and oral health fact sheets

Impacted Consumer Advisory Group – this group will review data, develop recommendations, and inform policy design conversations in deliberate ways;

Engaged, formal stakeholders, representative of larger constituencies (consumers and consumer groups, health care professional organizations, state and local agencies, etc.) to develop a set of recommendations to address oral health needs and opportunities to expand and strengthen the oral health workforce.

In addition to these workgroups, the Schuyler Center plans to contract with the Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) at the School of Public Health, University at Albany, SUNY, to conduct policy-relevant research on the impact of the oral health workforce on oral health outcomes. CHWS is the national Oral Health Workforce Research Center (OHWRC) and its research informs workforce strategies across the nation to increase access to oral health services for historically marginalized and underserved populations.

Ultimately, this project will create a comprehensive landscape of oral health data for New York, which will benefit this project and several other oral health initiatives throughout the state. The Schuyler Center will lead this work and share data with policymakers and funding partners to urge New York to assume the role of updating this data regularly for progress tracking over time. Beyond the data collection and analysis that will be conducted in the grant period, the Schuyler Center also aims to identify and support oral health champions, with a particular interest in representation from sectors outside of healthcare, to guide the successful adoption and implementation of these workgroup's recommendations.

The proposal includes a funding request of $175,264, which will be used to support staff salaries for 3 project roles, including benefits ($46,500). Another significant portion of grant funds will be used to contract a consultant from the CHWS, who will provide data analysis, writing, presentations, and content expertise to the endeavor ($77,000). Finally, the remaining grant funds will be used for services such as translation/interpretation, technical assistance with participants with lived experience, and ongoing advisory group meetings for the three key workgroups informing the project.