CONTACT:  Wendy V. Long, Public Relations

                        (413) 685-1003

Parents Needed to Help Plan Better Access to Dental Care for Our Children

Gateway – Just as you are ready to leave for work, your child tells you that it hurts to chew.  You work 40 miles away and you are unsure about what to do.  If you do nothing and during the day your child’s pain gets worse, you will feel awful.  Yet, you need to get to work.  It is a dilemma.

When a child suffers from untreated dental problems, we all lose.  In pain, the child may be unable to concentrate at school and may even be disruptive in class, negatively impacting other children’s opportunity for learning.

As a community, we need to find solutions to this too common scenario.  The Hilltown Community Health Center has secured grants to work toward improved dental access for our children. 

But, to do this we need to develop a plan that is right for our community.  We are looking for a few parents who can identify with the above scenario (or a similar scenario) to be on our Dental Outreach Taskforce.  The time commitment is very reasonable, and the first meeting will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 30th at Gateway.

If you can help us with this project, please contact Mary Jo Maffei, Dental Outreach Planner, at 238-4117 or 413-259-1263 or at mmaffei@hchcweb.org.  Our children need you!