GreenShield continues to support access to oral health care for Waterloo Region residents
Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF) has partnered with GreenShield to improve access to mental and oral health care since 2020. Through this partnership, several local charities have been able to expand their programming to better support the needs of people across Waterloo Region.
The partnership began when GreenShield established a fund at WRCF in 2020 in recognition of Sherry Peister, who had recently retired from their Board of Directors. Sherry is a local resident and long-time volunteer in both the not-for-profit and public sector. The GreenShield Cares Community Impact Fund is dedicated to improving access to mental and oral health care.
In 2021 GreenShield partnered with Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF) to produce a report titled Left Behind: The State of Oral Health in Waterloo Region. This report shed light on the importance of oral health and analyzed the state of oral health in Waterloo Region compared to other regions across Ontario and Canada. It looked at who does and doesn’t have dental insurance and provided recommendations to improve oral health outcomes in Waterloo Region.
Together, GreenShield and WRCF hosted a session to discuss research findings from the report with a group of organizations across Waterloo Region that offered programming in the oral health space. This sparked a healthy discussion on actions that could be taken to support access to oral health care across Waterloo Region.
“We know the problem of access to affordable and equitable oral health care is complex and that the people being left behind are often those already most vulnerable in our communities,” said Eric Avner, President & CEO, Waterloo Region Community Foundation. “With the support of GreenShield, we are able to get dollars to the organizations that are on the ground doing the work to increase access to oral health care across Waterloo Region.”
“Through our efforts to improve access to oral care, GreenShield has impacted over 35,000 Canadians,” said Zahid Salman, President and CEO, GreenShield. “We continue to fund oral care clinics and vital oral health research with partners to help ensure all Canadians have equitable access to oral health care services.”
Here are three recent examples of oral health programs in Waterloo Region that have been supported by the GreenShield Cares Community Impact Fund:
'SO GRATEFUL': Expanded dental program at Langs a 'great program for everybody'
Lynda MacKinnon doesn’t hesitate when asked about the importance of funding concerning the recent expansion of the dental clinic at Langs Farm Village Association.
“Without the funding, this isn’t something that we would be offering our patients,” the Clinical Director at Langs said.
Langs, which services Waterloo Region and Wellington County as part of the province’s network of non-profit Community Health Centres, has been operating a dental clinic for seniors at its Cambridge location since 2019.
The government-funded Ontario Seniors Dental Care Program provides access to care to low-income seniors. Langs was selected as one of three such sites in the region.
Thanks to help from the GreenShield Cares Community Impact Fund held at WRCF, Langs recently added to its dental offerings, effectively doubling its capacity in the process.
In addition to providing dental service to those aged 65 and up, Langs is now providing care for folks between the ages of 16 and 65, who don’t have coverage through other means.
“We’re a Community Health Centre and we serve primarily those that are lower income, working poor. People that just generally struggle day to day, and do not have the disposable income for preventive dental care,” MacKinnon said. “Without any public or private dental coverage, they have to make the choice to ignore their oral health needs, often leading to a primary care appointment related to resultant dental issues that arise.”
The new pilot program, like the seniors program, includes both emergency and basic dental service. Langs has partnered with a local community dental office (Riverfront Dental) enabling patients to get the care they need when they need it either through self-referral to the program or referral from their primary care team.
Added MacKinnon: “I don’t even know how to put into words what GreenShield and WRCF have done for the folks that we’re able to (help). Their health is so positively impacted by being able to address their dental health needs. That has to be such a satisfying endpoint for the patients as well."
If you would like to join GreenShield and WRCF in supporting Langs’ oral health programming, visit their website at langs.org/get-involved/donate. To read more about their dental program, visit wrcf.ca/news/langs-oh-story.
BEAMING WITH GRATITUDE: Sunbeam celebrates ‘wonderful’ new dental space
Sunbeam Community & Developmental Services CEO Brian Swainson wouldn’t claim to have all the answers, but he was sure of one thing.
“We stood back and thought, ‘This little one-room dental clinic on the second floor of our main building, it’s just not cutting it,’” Swainson recalled of considering the centre’s dental clinic on Kingsway Drive in Kitchener that sat empty as the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns had gone into effect.
Fast-forward a few years and today Swainson said he‘s grateful for every opportunity he gets to show and tour Sunbeam’s new state-of-the-art dental clinic, which reopened in the spring of 2022.
The dental clinic, branded as My Dental Clinic, came to fruition through an investment of $250,000 that included fundraising at the grassroots and corporate levels. A significant financial contribution came from the GreenShield Cares Community Impact Fund, held at Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF).
“It’s an absolutely wonderful space, thoughtfully designed to consider the unique needs of the people we support,” Swainson said.
While the former dental space had become outdated and was lacking in functionality, the new clinic’s design takes into consideration the complex and evolving needs of individuals living with developmental disabilities, some of whom also have significant physical challenges.
The accessible, ground floor clinic consists of two treatment rooms and features a ceiling lift to safely transport individuals from wheelchairs and into a “state-of-the-art” dentist chair, as well as an X-ray machine. There are also calming murals on the wall. The dentist can be working in one treatment space while the full-time dental hygienist works in the other.
If you would like to join GreenShield and WRCF in supporting Sunbeam’s oral health programming, visit their website at sunbeamcommunity.ca/donate. To read more about their dental clinic, visit wrcf.ca/news/sunbeam-oh-story.
CENTRE OF ATTENTION: The Working Centre re-opens dental clinic with help from ‘key ingredient’ funding
Delmy Rodriguez, Dr. Eathar Noureen and Nory Gamboa working at the dental clinic
After being put on the back burner out of pure necessity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Working Centre's Community Dental Clinic is once again open.
That has The Working Centre Director Joe Mancini smiling.
Food and housing became the immediate priorities throughout the pandemic. Those needs combined with complexities surrounding health regulations, led to the dental clinic, which had been operating since 2014, being temporarily shuttered in 2020.
"We were always committed to it," Joe Mancini said. "It was only in the last year that we started planning out how to put our resources towards that."
A significant portion of those resources came courtesy of the GreenShield Cares Community Impact Fund held at WRCF, which effectively allowed The Working Centre's dental clinic to re-open in February 2023.
"It was the key ingredient," Mancini said. "We wanted to have a little bit of a base of funding. The clinic operates with volunteer dentists and hygienists, but we do employ a dental assistant who is kind of like the office manager. That was the one role we needed to get things going. When that was confirmed, that was a bit of a relief that we could move forward."
The funding allowed The Working Centre to hire a dental assistant who performs the role of full-time clinic coordinator. They were also able to purchase dental software that allows for easy documentation of services.
"Our group does not get access to dental. In some respects, there are all kinds of health services they can get access to. But dental continues to not be widely available unless you have money," Mancini said. "And also demonstrating to the wider community the importance of it. Someday, I think it should be covered as a medical service."
The financial assistance has been a genuine blessing, he added.
"Our gratitude to GreenShield and WRCF for supporting this project. It’s really important," he said.
If you would like to learn more about The Working Centre, visit their website at theworkingcentre.org. To read more about their dental clinic including how to provide financial support if you are interested, visit wrcf.ca/news/twc-oh-story.
