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    Caring Health Center gets grant to join oral health substance use disorder project

    The Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers recently received an $18,000 grant from Delta Dental of Massachusetts to expand from five to seven the number of community health centers participating in the project.

    By Anne-Gerard Flynn | Special to The Republican

    Dr. Lucila Bruno
    Dr. Lucila Bruno is a general dentist who serves as chief dental director for Caring Health Center. (Photo by Anne-Gerard Flynn, Special to The Republican)

    SPRINGFIELD — Managing dental pain for those with substance use disorder will become easier thanks to a pilot project that Caring Health Center is participating in.

    Funding from the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers will allow Caring Health Center here to take part in the league’s Substance Use Disorder Pilot Project, which launched last year.

    The league recently received an $18,000 grant from Delta Dental of Massachusetts to expand from five to seven the number of community health centers participating in the project. Caring received $5,000 of that money to join the pilot this year.

    The project is designed to refine, promote and share through webinar training sessions safe prescribing practices in managing dental pain in those with substance use disorder that can have a significant impact oral health. One of the early steps Gov. Charlie Baker took in addressing the state’s opioid addiction crisis in 2015 was the creation of his Working Group on Dental Education on Prescription Drug Misuse. It led to curriculum changes to better educate dental school students on the prevention of such misuse.

    Dennis Leonard, Delta Dental of Massachusetts president and CEO, said in statement that the “coronavirus pandemic and limitations on social interactions have widened the gap between patients with SUDs who need treatment and those who actually receive treatment.”

    “Health centers in this pilot will refine best practices for engaging with SUD patients, and the League will immediately share that work through webinars and trainings for the benefit of all community health center dental practices across the state,” Leonard said.

    The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has contracted with the League, a nonprofit whose members are the state’s 52 community health centers, to award through a four-year grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration funding to seven members to create an oral health substance use disorder learning network to integrate oral and behavioral health.

    Michael Curry, the League’s president and chief executive officer, said the pilot learning network has already resulted in “more success identifying patients with SUDs and linking them to the critical treatment and recovery supports they need.”

    The pandemic made existing behavioral health issues more severe for many individuals, and dentists during some of the pandemic were only open to treat emergency conditions.

    Caring plans to participate in the webinar sessions and to use the grant to address dental issues that can result from substance use disorders, such as tooth loss and decay.

    Dr. Lucila Bruno, a general dentist who serves as Caring’s chief dental director, said her department “is committed to supporting the community in all aspects that affect overall health.”

    “We are thankful for this learning opportunity and are currently engaged with the League in an effort to improve screening for substance use disorders by training our providers to be open, knowledgeable and assertive in the approach to our patients and to offer referrals to evaluation and treatment as needed,” Bruno said.

    SOURCE: Mass Live News