News Releases

News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: June 13, 2006
For more information, contact Virginia Elliott, Vice President for Programs, 620-662-8586

United Methodist Health Ministry Fund announces health grants

Hutchinson, KS—The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund announces new grants totaling over $266,000 for health-related projects in Kansas. The Health Fund grants an average of nearly $3 million each year to support health projects in its three strategic focus areas: access to health care, oral health, and healthy nutrition and exercise.

Voices for Children, a support foundation for the Topeka-based children’s advocacy organization Kansas Action for Children, will receive $150,000 over three years. The grant supports continuation of the Fiscal Focus initiative. The initiative is also receiving funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Fiscal Focus is part of a national project to develop state-level budget and tax policy analysis that considers economic security for low- and moderate-income families. Fiscal Focus was launched by Kansas Action for Children in the summer of 2003 and has developed and distributed five reports on tax policy issues in Kansas.

Marian Clinic, Topeka, will expand its dental services with a grant of $12,733. The grant will help establish a portable dental hygiene service that will travel to schools, Head Start centers, and other locations to reach children of low-income families lacking access to dental care. Services will include cleaning teeth, applying fluoride varnish or sealants to prevent tooth decay, and lessons on taking care of teeth for overall health. For children without a dentist and needing dental treatment, Marian Clinic Dental provides care on a sliding fee scale and accepts dental insurance including Medicaid and HealthWave public insurance for children.

“For families of limited resources, preventive dental care is often not a priority and taking time off work to take children out of school for appointments is problematic for many parents,” Marian Clinic Dental Director Jose Lopez said of the need for the Healthy Smiles portable dental hygiene service. He named tooth decay, which can lead to delays in school readiness and school absenteeism, as the most common chronic disease among children. Marian Clinic has offered dental services in Topeka since 1989. The non-profit dental clinic is located at 3164 East Sixth Street and is open Monday through Friday.

Oral Health Kansas, a Topeka-based coalition, will receive $81,320 over 18 months to continue to provide technical assistance for establishing dental hygiene services for disadvantaged Kansans. Legislation passed in 2003 allows Kansas dental hygienists licensed with Extended Care Permits to provide services in schools, health departments, long-term care facilities, and similar settings. In response to requests for guidance on implementing these services and with the financial support of an earlier Health Fund grant, Oral Health Kansas provided technical assistance and consultation to both hygienists interested in qualifying for the Extended Care Permit and eligible organizations interested in establishing a dental hygiene service. With this Health Fund grant, Oral Health Kansas will be able to continue raising awareness and providing assistance in improving the dental workforce available to low-income Kansans.

“Legislation that allows something to happen isn’t the same as implementation,” Oral Health Kansas Director Teresa Schwab commented about the need for this work. “There have been some barriers, but Kansas is now poised to reap the benefits of more accessible preventative care for our most vulnerable citizens.”

With a grant of $5,500, two methods of providing education for improved oral health will be evaluated at the Haskell Health Center in Lawrence. Under the direction of University of Kansas pediatric psychology professor Michael Roberts, Ph. D., the study will be conducted by Joanna Mashunkashey, a graduate student with the Clinical Child Psychology Program. The study will compare the effectiveness of interactive computer games with more intentional parental involvement in teaching and encouraging Native American children to brush and floss their teeth for improved oral health. The study will involve 100 children who are dental patients at Haskell.

Native American children have a particularly high rate of tooth decay, according to Roberts. 91 percent have untreated dental caries by the age of 19. The dental office of the Haskell Health Center serves about 400 children between the ages of six and 16 each year.

A grant of $17,200 will help the Leavenworth County Health Department establish a dental hygiene clinic. The clinic will be located at the Health Department and provide preventive dental hygiene care and education for disadvantaged young children and pregnant women. A local dental hygienists, Susan Rodgers, will staff the new clinic under the sponsorship of Leavenworth dentist Darren Haun.

“The dental problems we see at the Health Department can really affect overall health and are largely preventable,” Sylvia Burns, Health Department Administrative Director, explained. “By concentrating our dental hygiene service on young children we hope to be able to prevent a lot of these problems from developing in the first place.”

Based in Hutchinson, the mission of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund is “Healthy Kansans through cooperative and strategic philanthropy guided by Christian principles.” Its funding comes from an endowment established in 1986 by the Kansas West Conference of the United Methodist Church from a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Wesley Hospital in Wichita. Since the Health Fund’s founding, grants totaling more than $41 million have supported hundreds of health-related projects in Kansas.

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