G-1905-15096

This investment supports the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) in its efforts to continue to support, facilitate, and convene the National Rural Health Initiative that includes activities centered on policy, communications, education, and research. Rural health continues to play a critical role in the national discourse and integrating oral health into that dialogue is an important next step in terms of supporting a comprehensive approach to health. Specifically, NRHA will maintain and convene the rural oral health interest group established in 2016, continue to leverage NRHA communication channels to disseminate information about rural oral health, design and host sessions focused on rural oral health as a part of its annual conference and the 2020 NRHA Health Equity Conference, conduct technical assistance for state rural health associations on ways to incorporate oral health into their work; and develop a second edition of the compendium of rural oral health best practices. These approaches would enable the NRHA to further enhance support to rural communities as their work to solve their oral health care challenges and raise awareness of solutions to these challenges. This proposal will help support improvement across all four systems, and will promote the Oral Health 2020 goal of improving public perception of the value of oral health within overall health and the target that oral health is increasingly included in health dialogue and public policy. $100,800 will support personnel time needed to implement the project, in-person and virtual meeting capacity, and production and subsequent dissemination of rural oral health knowledge products.