Thursday, November 21, 2024
11/21/2024
Project Summary The mouth is an integral part of human anatomy and plays a major role in our overall physiology. Oral health is intimately related to the health of the rest of the body. Since 2002, Statewide Oral Health Needs Assessments have consistently shown that South Carolina’s third graders were more likely to have experienced tooth decay than other third graders in the United States. It also revealed that South Carolina third graders were less likely to have sealants on their molars than those in other states. The statewide 2012 Oral Health Needs Assessment, the most recent with a completed analysis, showed that almost 41% of the 6,155 children examined had caries experience. Racial, economic, and geographic disparities were apparent. In 2016 less than half of the adults with diabetes in South Carolina had access to oral health services. In 2015, in response to ongoing oral health issues in the state, the Division of Oral Health (DOH) at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) and the Oral Health Advisory Council, in collaboration with the Oral Health Coalition developed SC Oral Health 2020, the South Carolina State Oral Health Plan. Through DOH staff reports and quarterly meetings the Advisory Council continually monitors, updates, modifies, and evaluates the progress of objectives and activities. The work of the Oral Health Coalition takes place within the workgroups that address oral health across the lifespan. Each Coalition workgroup has taken responsibility for the implementation of specific sections of the plan that connect to their area of focus. Funding from the CDC supported the oral health program that supported the state’s efforts to address the issues identified in the state plan. SC will take action to improve oral health outcomes by employing the following strategies: • Strategy 1: Expand the reach of the School-Based Dental Sealants and the DHEC Public Health Dental Prevention Program to provide dental sealants for more underserved children in more schools that meet the CDC high risk criteria. • Strategy 2: Expand access to optimally fluoridated water for populations currently served by community water systems • Strategy 3: Enhance SC’s Oral Health Surveillance System to more effectively produce and disseminate timely data and information to assess oral health disparities and inform the agency, programs, policy and community health assessments. • Component 2: Medical Dental Integration - Diabetes Each strategy includes activities along three main categories Collaborations and Partnerships, Communication and Policy and Data Collection and Reporting. A key component of the proposal is an emphasis on engaging leadership teams that provide program oversight and management; the development of a comprehensive communication plan that effectively engages target audiences; and a wide-ranging system of data collection and sharing. Our evaluation plan will harness the strengths of well-established evaluation and monitoring theories and models. As appropriate, we will draw from several frameworks including CDC’s Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health, Utilization Focused Evaluation (UFE), Theory of Constraints Lean Six Sigma (TCLSS), and Results Based Accountability (RBA). CDC’s framework provides guidance in developing comprehensive evaluations that yield practical and useful data to meet the diverse needs of stakeholders. The CDC framework guides users to monitor program implementation, outcomes, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of activities; taking action based on evaluation results to increase the impact of programs.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
