Dental Clinic for Severely Mentally Disabled
to Stay Open Another Year

 

 

A dental clinic in Waltham for the severely mentally disabled that was scheduled to be closed has won a reprieve of more than a year. The clinic at the Fernald Developmental Center, which serves up to 2,100 patients a year, will stay open up to June 30, 2011, according to the Fernald League for the Retarded Inc.

The league’s president, Marilyn Meagher, said in a statement that she was glad the state “was not simply shutting down the Fernald clinic in two months and walking away from its clients.’’

The Tufts University Dental Facilities clinic, the largest of its kind in Massachusetts, was due to close June 30, along with the rest of the center, as a cost-saving measure.

State officials are developing a plan to accommodate patients from the clinic at six other Tufts dental clinics around the state, the advocates said. During the transition period, the Fernald clinic will remain open.

“The state has given us at the maximum till the end of next [fiscal] year. . . . We’re excited about it and plans have begun immediately to relocate’’ services, said Christine Fennelly, a spokeswoman for Tufts University.

The state has contracted with Tufts to operate the clinics for more than three decades.

Jean McGuire, assistant secretary for Disability Policies and Programs in the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services, said: “Tufts will continue to provide dental services at Fernald over the course of the next fiscal year while patients transition care to other Tufts sites closer to their communities of residence.’’

Advocates had warned last month that once the clinic closed, severely mentally disabled patients who were difficult to treat would have few places to turn for fillings, crowns, or partial dentures.

Meagher said it is likely many patients will experience longer wait times and drives when they have to go to the other clinics.

Tufts Dental Facilities was established in 1976. It operates seven clinics that serve about 9,000 patients. The staff includes 25 dentists, 11 hygienists, and dozens of other workers who specialize in treating people with disabilities.

-From: “Dental clinic for disabled to stay open another year; Cost-saving plan delayed for now”, by Martin Finucane, Globe Staff, The Boston Globe, April 28, 2010, http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/04/28/dental_clinic_for_disabled_to_stay_open_another_year/, retrieved 4/28/10.

 

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