HRSA Renews CDM's Community-based Dental Partnership Grant

Columbia University College of Dental Medicine researchers have received continued support through the Health Resources and Services Administration Ryan White HIV/AIDS program. The Community-based Dental Partnership Program (a part of the HRSA initiative, has as its goal increasing access to oral health care for people living with HIV by providing education and clinical training for oral health care providers, especially those practicing in community-based settings.

Data show that HIV continues to disproportionately affect low-income Black and Latino/Hispanic communities, who may also face barriers when seeking health care.  Because of its location in Northern Manhattan, which continues to have one of the largest HIV burdens in the U.S, CDM is uniquely situated to reach those communities that are most affected by and at risk for HIV infection.

CDM is using the most recent round of funding to further develop a multi-pronged approach. CDM continues to provide comprehensive oral health care to people living with HIV in New York City’s Harlem and South Bronx communities where high levels of poverty, minority status, homelessness, sexual and drug behavioral risks for HIV/AIDS, STDs, and high levels of unmet medical and dental need combine to create a crisis in oral health care for people living with HIV.  Ongoing collaborations with three existing community partners — Harlem United Upper Room AIDS Ministry, which serves unhoused adults; Project STAY, which serves at-risk adolescents; and ArchCare, which serves families — as well as a new partnership with the New York Presbyterian/Comprehensive HIV Program, enable the integration of oral health care and primary medical care in community-based settings that provide medical, dental, and psychosocial services, according to Carol Kunzel PhD, professor of foundational science and sociomedical sciences at CDM and principal investigator on the grant.

In addition, CDM has expanded predoctoral students’ engagement by moving third year dental students’ clinical extramural involvement from voluntary to mandatory and by supplementing this training with a required non-clinical medical rotation at the Comprehensive HIV Program. Students who have completed the rotation say that it has provided useful insight into the challenges involved in treating this population. “Overall, I saw the importance of providing non-judgmental, culturally competent care and the need for oral health education in persons living with HIV through this service learning rotation,” says a third-year dental student who completed the course.

“The goal of our Community-Based Dental Partnership Program is twofold: to provide quality care for Patients Living with HIV/AIDS and to train students how to provide the best quality care for this special care population,” says Emily Byington, the grant’s program coordinator. “This program focuses on cultivating the partnerships between the patient and provider, the student and the community dentist, and the neighborhood and the institution.”

To broaden the scope and impact of the program, CDM is publishing an annual newsletter to share resources and to build a learning network of providers and promote integrated care to health care professionals. You can read the inaugural newsletter here.

“We’re very proud of how our CBDPP program has developed over the past few years, building on its long-standing partnership with Harlem United,” says Kunzel. “The program has evolved from training only dental residents to training all third-year dental students and now, in its third year, trains almost 100 students, offering them enhanced clinical experiences and greater opportunities to engage with patients living with HIV. We hope that by developing an informed oral health workforce, future dentists will be able to help improve total health outcomes for their HIV infected patients and help to reduce HIV-related stigma and health disparities.”