School Awarded $900K for Community-Based HIV/AIDS Program
The HIV/AIDS Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last month awarded BUSDM and Holyoke Health Center (HHC) a grant to implement an oral health program for patients with HIV and AIDS in western Massachusetts.
The Community-Based Dental Partnership Program grant of $300,000 per year for three years will help BUSDM and HHC deliver clinical services to unserved and underserved patients with HIV/AIDS. The project, Salud Oral: Partnership for a Healthier Hampden County, will unite SDM’s expertise providing community-based dental education and HHC’s experience providing comprehensive health care to vulnerable populations.
“Western Massachusetts has been hit hard by the HIV epidemic and Holyoke has the fastest-growing rate of locally-transmitted HIV in Massachusetts,” says Michelle Henshaw, associate professor of heath policy and health services research, director of the Division of Community Health Programs, and principal investigator of the grant. “This project will improve access to dental care for people with HIV and AIDS while developing a future dental workforce that will be better prepared to provide care to people with HIV.”
The goals of the Community Dental Partnership program are to increase access to oral health care for patients with HIV in underserved areas, especially in communities without dental education programs. The program also aims to increase the number of dental providers capable of managing the oral health needs of patients with HIV through community-based education.
At BUSDM, the team responsible for the program includes Henshaw, Madalyn Mann, associate professor of general dentistry and director of the Office of Extramural Affairs; Dr. Wanda Wright, assistant professor of health policy and health services research; Dr. Ana Karina Mascarenhas, associate professor of health policy and health services research and director of the Dental Public Health Program; and Dr. Dawn West, assistant clinical professor and director of General Practice Residency at Boston Medical Center.