Dental case management: Improving dental outcomes among persons experiencing homelessness

This poster demonstrates the importance of case management and enabling services in the development of successful dental health services by Health Care for the Homeless Programs. Even with new opportunities to access dental care under the Affordable Care Act, there are still many barriers to dental health for a population that experiences severe oral health problems. An HCH program which has limited funding for oral health must incorporate the voices and needs of their client population in designing an oral health program which produces truly good outcomes for their patients. The Alameda County HCH program brought together social workers, consumers, and dental providers to develop a case management-based dental program for its patients with the most complex oral health conditions. Based on their work, the HCH program was able to create QI outcomes measures for the upcoming year, which they met. Based on the successful implementation of the dental case management program, AHCHCP will present a poster covering the following areas: oral health and homelessness (needs and current situation); how much do we do with more demand; higher acuity and flat-funding; and more. This poster will be presented by a consumer of the ACHCHP program who was deeply involved in the development of the ACHCHP dental case management program.