Policy Consensus Tool

The Children’s Dental Health Project (CDHP) and the Division of Oral Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collaborated to develop a facilitated consensus-building process for stakeholders. Since 2007, more than 20 states have used the Policy Consensus Tool to:

• Enhance strategic thinking about oral health in the state
• Strengthen communication among oral health advocates by encouraging an exchange of views, while providing a path to consensus
• Support a process for identifying and prioritizing policy issues
• Encourage transparency in obtaining and aggregating stakeholder input
• Enhance implementation and evaluation of the State Oral Health Plan

CDHP continues to work with both CDC-funded and non CDC-funded states to organize policy consensus-building sessions guided by trained facilitators. For more information, please contact CDHP's Lynn Olson at 202-417-3597.