Schuyler Center Releases New Oral Health Brief

Research and expe­rience have yielded compelling results that prevention is the best way to avoid the pain, cost and other negative impacts of tooth decay.  A new Issue Brief and Fast Facts from the Schuyler Center focuses on the importance of community water fluoridation—one of the most effective, cost-effective, natural and safe ways to prevent tooth decay.  See our health page.

Newly released brief supports Schuyler Center’s oral health work to advance policies to reduce dental disease

Our friends at the Children’s Dental Project have released a new report outlining the findings of an analysis using system dynamics modeling (SDM) to learn how different prevention strategies would reduce tooth decay among young children in New York State and affect the state Medicaid budget. The brief supports Schuyler Center’s work promoting policies to reduce dental disease in children and develop community collaborations around the strategies outlined in the SDM research. The Schuyler Center’s oral health briefs can be found here.

Despite being largely preventable, tooth decay remains the most prevalent chronic health condition among U.S. children and adolescents.  Nearly half of all children entering Kindergarten have had at least one cavity. While prevalence has significantly decreased in recent years among most children, early childhood caries (ECC)—tooth decay in children from birth through age 5—is becoming more frequent among those ages 2-5. The increase in tooth decay is especially pronounced among children living in low-income families, which indicates that the current oral health care system is not adequately addressing the needs of children with the highest risk for poor oral health.

 

Kalpana Bhandarkar and Dr. Barbara Rittner elected to Schuyler Center’s Board of Trustees

Kalpana Bhandarkar, MPH, MBA is Vice President of Research and Health Services Initiatives at Maimonides Medical Center, a 700-bed teaching hospital in Borough Park, Brooklyn. In this capacity, she oversees research administration supporting clinical and health services studies and supports the President and CEO on special projects. She was formerly a Manager at Manatt Health Solutions, an interdisciplinary consulting unit of the law firm of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips. Prior to joining Manatt, she worked for the Mount Sinai Adoles­cent Health Center in New York City and the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington, D.C.  Ms. Bhandarkar holds a Masters in Public Health and Masters in Business Administration from John Hopkins University and a Bachelor’s Degree from Tufts University.

Barbara Rittner, Ph.D., LCSW, is Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Advancement at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work. Previously, she was a direct practice social worker and administrator in economic services and child welfare as part of the State Welfare system in Miami, Florida.  She has also served on the faculty at the University of Nevada-Reno and the University of Georgia.  Her research centers on child welfare issues, particularly in the area of foster care.  She earned a BA in English and Philosophy at the University of Connecticut and an MSW and Ph.D. from Barry University in Miami, Florida.

Latest from the Home Visiting Workgroup: Recap & Resources

The statewide home visiting workgroup reconvened this month. The topic of this meeting was Moving Beyond Visioning: Elements of a Statewide System. The group focused on elements that would provide better coordination between programs, and move New York closer to a statewide home visiting system, while also increasing families’ access to services. Workgroup members engaged in lively discussion about the tangibility of the system and each of the proposed elements. The group will continue to explore these elements through smaller workgroups and a full follow-up meeting later this fall. You can learn more through the chart and presentation below.

In the Elements Chart, learn more about each of the proposed elements of a coordinated home visiting system. In the second part of the chart, learn more about existing initiatives that could expand access to services.

Also available is the presentation, presented to the workgroup by Schuyler Center President Kate Breslin. The presentation walks through each of the elements in the chart.