Free Dental Clinics Provide Care

Free Port Salerno dental clinic wants volunteers to help growing need

PORT SALERNO — In a decaying economy, some might say a charity’s most valuable resource is a wealth of financial donations.

But Stuart dentist Dr. Al Warren, who started a free dental clinic in 2006 called Christian Community Care Center, hopes to be able to accommodate patients through a different sort of resource.

“We need volunteers,” he said.

The clinic, in the parish hall of Spanish Baptist church Iglesia Bautista Jesucristo El Camino, is open two days a week and has served more than 1,500 patients since its inception.

If the economy continues a downward slide, Warren and his colleagues foresee an increase of people who won’t be able to afford dental care.

More: http://www.tcpalm.com

Holland Free Health Clinic provides health care for those in need

Holland, MI — “We are very blessed in this community to have so many positive assets to help people,” said Carolyn Scoby, 59, and a client of the Holland Free Health Clinic.

Scoby, who lost one kidney to cancer and suffers from diabetic kidney disease in the remaining one, feels she would have died without the medications that the clinic helped her obtain when she had personally run out of resources. “They do everything they can to help you,” said Scoby, “without making you feel like a low life.”

The Holland Free Health Clinic was founded in 2002, under the sponsorship of Faith Christian Reformed Church. Its original mission was to assist patients who were poor and uninsured obtain free medications offered through various pharmaceutical programs.

Today, the clinic’s Web site (www.hfhclinic.org) states: “The Holland Free Health Clinic exists to meet the basic human need of health services for the poor and underinsured in our community.”

More: http://www.hollandsentinel.com

Free clinics fill medical void

The clinic provides free medical and dental services and medicine for the working poor — people who have no insurance but earn too much to qualify for federal or state programs.

“They kept me alive,” says Boyer, 28, of Coatesville.

More Americans losing their jobs and health insurance are turning to volunteer-run free clinics and government-funded community health centers for free or low-cost medical care. The safety net is being strained as demand grows and budgets shrink.

More: http://www.usatoday.com