Community project funding/congressionally directed spending - construction - one of the most significant health disparities for children and adults in wisconsin living at or below the federal…

Community project funding/congressionally directed spending - construction - one of the most significant health disparities for children and adults in wisconsin living at or below the federal poverty level is a lack of access to preventative and restorative dental care. This disparity crosses race and ethnicity and severely inhibits our most vulnerable community members from achieving better health outcomes. According to the county oral health wisconsin surveillance system, less than 20.0% of badgercare+/medicaid members in our service area have received a recent dental service. The public health emergency of covid-19 further complicated and reduces access and service delivery. Outside of the care that we provide at our sites in appleton, oshkosh and waupaca, less than 5% of dental providers in our area accept medicaid/badgercare+ and do not offer a sliding fee scale for uninsured and low-income patients. We recognize that access to oral health care is critical to the overall health of our residents. IT contributes to school and job success, positive self-esteem and improved mental health status; all things that support individual health and ultimately work towards healthier and vibrant community. We care for over 10,000 dental patients annually and the need for oral health care far outweighs our capacity to meet the pent up and growing demand particularly at our oshkosh location. This proposal requests $600,000 dollars of congressionally direct funding for construction projects will expand our oral health capacity through strategic capital improvements and equipment purchases for new dental operatories in oshkosh, WI. Our current space is inadequate for necessary expansion efforts. We are currently solidifying our expansion efforts for a new location to open in early 2023. This will allow for increased capacity and care delivery for preventative and restorative oral health care for individuals and families living in poverty in this community. This project is fully aligned with CDS funding and will improve health outcomes achieve health equity through access to high quality and affordable dental services and be delivered by a skilled and culturally competent health workforce . Pchc is committed to innovative, high-value programs and collaborations that are cost effective and respond directly to community need.