Dental Support for the Agnews Closure
Anews Developmental Center, an institution which has served individuals with health issues and developmental disabilities for more than 100 years, is in the process of closing. The Pacific Center for Special Care has been supporting Dental Coordinators (DCs) hired by the three Regional Centers (San Andreas, Golden Gate, and East Bay) and Regional Center personnel associated with the unified plan to develop and implement an oral health support systems in an effort to develop sources of oral health care once former Agnews residents are placed in the community.
Development of Community-Based Systems
The Pacific Center:
- Assists the regional centers and dental coordinators in developing unique community-based systems for their agency and region. Pacific supports the dental coordinators in the development of local resources; dental provider recruitment efforts; continued screening, prevention planning, and tracking of Agnews clients' oral health needs; and prevention education to care providers and other necessary community prevention programs.
- Works with personnel from the Agnews Dental Clinic to coordinate activities and resources for this project.
- Provides support for resource development by training and assisting the dental coordinators in methods that have been shown to be successful in enlisting the participation of local oral health professionals, clinics, and education programs.
Creation of individual and community prevention programs
The Pacific Center:
- Trains and supports the dental coordinators in developing individual and community prevention programs.
- Supplies training materials and protocols for these programs.
- Will conduct training programs, as indicated, to increase the skills and comfort of community oral health professionals in working with people with developmental disabilities.
- Note: there is separate support from a DDS Wellness grant to specifically cover the costs associated with postgraduate courses and meetings of the Statewide Task Force on Oral Health for People with Special Needs.
Prevention Products Project
- This project provides medical treatment products to residential service providers to use in conjunction with intensive oral health prevention plans.
- The Pacific Center has a contract with the Unified Plan Regional Centers to provide medical prevention products to all three Regional Centers.
- The Center tracks the quantities and costs of prevention products used as the DC supply individuals with appropriate products. With a significant focus on prevention, we expect the Regional Centers will see long-term decreases in hospital sedation cases and dental visit costs. Integration of prevention products into the service provider homes will then be more feasible once positive consumer outcomes are demonstrated.
- After this one-year prevention product contract period Pacific will estimate ongoing costs for continuing a program to make these products available to consumers.
In-Home Prevention Services
Given the difficulty of finding sources of dental care for former Agnews residents, particularly those with complex medical, behavioral or physical challenges, it's critical that significant efforts be made to prevent dental disease and minimize the need for treatment services. It's also important to involve dentists and encourage collaboration in the overall dental care of those individuals.
- Develop in-home prevention services and a system for dentist collaboration. The project will also involve collecting electronic records, using tele-dentistry methods, and facilitating access to dental treatment services for individuals with complex situations.
- Equip, train and track three RDHAP dental hygienists to provide in-home hygiene and prevention services, including desensitization, and therapeutic hygiene services such as teeth cleanings, scaling, root planing, or other necessary oral hygiene services.
- Encourage RDHAPs to work closely with patients and care providers in providing prevention education.
- Collaborate with the Regional Centers to develop a system for providing these services, billing and tracking dental treatment and provider recruitment.
