Local News Update

Garden City Community Clinic receives $92,000 grant from The Regence Foundation

Grant to expand clinic’s dental care and dental education program

BOISE – The Regence Foundation announced on March 9 that it has awarded a $92,000 grant to the Garden City Community Clinic to expand its dental program for low-income and uninsured patients. With the grant funding, the clinic will be able to see more patients, focus on preventive dental care, and educate patients about the connection between poor dental health and chronic diseases.

“The need for Garden City Community Clinic’s dental services is clear,” said Kieren Porter, Regence Foundation board chair. “The clinic reports that sixty percent of low income residents in Ada County haven’t seen a dentist in over a year, and non-urgent dental issues are among the most common reasons for local emergency room visits by uninsured patients. One of the cornerstones of a healthy community is access to quality care close to home – and dental care is no exception.”

Garden City Community Clinic’s expanded dental program will combine treatment and education. The program’s focus will be on catching and treating periodontal disease before it causes infection, pain or tooth loss by providing screenings to chronically ill patients and focusing on dental hygiene. It will educate patients and other medical providers about the ways dental infections and disease can affect blood sugar level and cardiac function.

The grant will also help fund a local dental advisory committee who will work on sustaining the expansion of the clinic. In addition, a feasability of creating a  volunteer dentists network will be sought out, in an attempt to duplicate the successful Volunteer (Specialists) Physicians Network that is operated by Genesis World Mission.

The Garden City Community clinic is run by Genesis World Mission, an organization working to meet the medical needs of the less fortunate, both globally and locally. It provides a medical, mental health and dental home for those in the community who live at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level and are currently uninsured. 

The Regence Foundation grant was given in partnership with the Regence Caring Foundation for Children, which helps provide free dental care to low-income children in Idaho and Utah. Expanded dental services are anticipated to begin May 1 after some initial capacity builiding takes place at the Clinic.

About The Regence Foundation

The Regence Foundation is the corporate foundation of Regence, the largest health insurer in the Northwest/Intermountain region and a nonprofit independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. A 501(c)3 grantmaking organization, the Foundation partners with organizations driving significant change in health care delivery and accessibility in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Through its Sojourns program, the Foundation also supports organizations advancing quality palliative and end-of-life care. For more information, visit www.RegenceFoundation.org or www.twitter.com/RegenceGives.

.