This publication provides guidance on how to implement a behavioral health and oral health integration program. The User's Guide includes a description of NNOHA's systems-based framework for behavioral health integration, promising practices from community health centers, and workflow examples. There is also a readiness assessment to help community health centers determine their level of preparedness to implement a behavioral health integration program.

This toolkit shares strategies, promising practices, and resources to support increased coordination for oral health and behavioral health integration.

This promising practice features Community Health Centers of South Central Texas. This organization implemented a behavioral health and oral health integration program where dental providers deliver behavioral health screenings.

Live Webinar 10/27/21

Join us for an October Domestic Violence Awareness Month webinar to identify strategies that can promote health and safety outcomes for patients and their children. Oral health providers play an important role in supporting survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). In several studies, many survivors of IPV saw a dentist when signs of abuse were present and many were not asked about their injuries (as many as 88.6% in one study). Oral health providers have an opportunity to offer their patients information on IPV, reduce isolation, and increase safety by referring patients to community-based organizations for support. In addition, national referrals, including those that help patients receive free cosmetic and dental reconstructive surgeries, will also be discussed. This webinar will highlight resources offered by Health Partners on IPV + Exploitation (a HRSA-funded NTTAP), detail national hotlines and oral health programs to support survivors of DV, and discuss the latest research on the topic.

Objectives:

1. Identify the prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and oral health problems associated with IPV.

2. Identify an evidence-based universal education approach (CUES -Confidentiality, Universal Education, Empowerment, Support) to inform patients about healthy relationships and assess for IPV.

3. List the benefits of partnering with a local DV agency/community-based organization to promote bi-directional client referrals.

This promising practice features Terry Reilly Health Center in Idaho. The health center implemented a teledentistry program for patients experiencing substance use disorder. The publication was originally published in October 2021.

Live Webinar: 7/27/21

Integrating oral health, primary care, and behavioral health is a strategy to increase access to care and improve overall health outcomes. This webinar will feature Jordan Valley Community Health Center. They’ll share strategies to integrate medical and dental care. In addition, they’ll share how they’ve integrated behavioral health into other departments. The webinar will discuss the value of medical and dental integration and strategies to engage the whole health care team. 

Objectives:

1. Describe strategies to integrate oral health and primary care practice.

2. Discuss the value of medical and dental integration.

3. Learn how one health center successfully integrated oral health, primary care, and behavioral health.

NNOHA and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council developed this publication to bring awareness to the intersection of oral health and behavioral health concerns or cognitive impairment in people experiencing homelessness. The publication will share the impacts of behavioral health illness on oral health and how behavioral health and dental providers can work together to address this intersection in their practices.

The IBOH Learning Collaborative supports health centers to promote mental health wellbeing in their dental programs. Participating health centers work with NNOHA to implement behavioral health screenings (i.e. PHQ-2, PHQ-9) in the dental clinic. The learning collaborative uses the NNOHA User’s Guide for Implementation of Interprofessional Oral Health Core Clinical Competencies as a framework for behavioral health integration. This is a virtual learning collaborative.

Applications for the 2023 cohort are closed. Stay tuned for the next cohort in Fall 2024.