Rep. Frederica Wilson hand delivered a $400,000 check to the Jessie Trice Community Health System (JTCHS) last week for a new mobile van focused on pediatric dental health.
Against the backdrop of the Frederica Wilson/Juanita Mann Health Center in Liberty City, Wilson and members of JTCHS were joined by dozens of children to celebrate National Health Center Week and the allocation of dollars. Parked just outside the center was an already-developed dental health van that will be complemented by a larger mobile unit by the end of the year.
“I’m just so excited to see this van and see it here in action so that more children will be able to get the dental care they need … Together with this mobile unit, we will ensure that all of our children, regardless of income, have access to dental care,” Wilson said, addressing the crowd.
The vans will be deployed to schools throughout Miami-Dade County, as well as various health fairs held at churches and parks. JTCHS President and CEO Ryan Hawkins said patients will have the ability to be vetted for insurance coverage, though the typical sliding fee for a checkup is capped at $25, and schedule follow-up care.
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“You have certain areas where individuals may be underserved or lack appropriate access to care, or the parents just aren’t able to take the time off to get them to the dentist, and you see higher levels [of tooth decay],” said Hawkins. “So we definitely want to make sure that if you can’t come to us, we’re going to find a way to come to you.”
Overlooking dental care
The American Dental Association and American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that children visit the dentist before they turn 1 year old. Studies further show that more than 40% of children develop some level of tooth decay before they enter kindergarten.
Hawkins said this could be for a number of reasons, including damaging ingredients in liquids, such as juices with high levels of sugar, or overreliance on baby bottles.
Wilson, a former school teacher and former school principal, has been intimately close to parents and their children her whole life. She said the overall neglect of dental care has been evident throughout her career.
“Parents, there’s one thing they would skip, and it was a visit to the dentist,” Wilson said. “You really couldn’t skip medical care because children would be crying because of a stomach ache or throwing up or a fever, but dental care, parents would skip that because it costs a lot of money, and they just didn’t have the money.”
It’s why she chose to earmark the federal dollars specifically for the Frederica Wilson/Juanita Mann Health Center, the construction of which she funded as a member of the Florida Senate in 2009 and which is now considered to be a safety net primary care service for the community, run by the JTCHS.
“I’ve always felt that in order for children to learn, they have to be healthy,” Wilson told The Miami Times. “You can’t be hungry, and you can’t be sick. You have to have a full tummy, and you have to be well, and you can’t have cavities, or ‘rotten teeth,’ as the children like to call it.”
But a mobile clinic is only a temporary solution in Wilson’s mind. She has bigger plans for the Liberty City health center that she hopes will one day come to fruition.
Expanding healthcare
Wilson has long had a vision for the expansion of the Frederica Wilson/Juanita Mann Health Center, specifically for a pediatric health wing.
“This is a small clinic that has to service a large population, so that’s my real issue for going into expanding.”
However, Wilson said it’s due to bureaucratic “red tape” that she has been unable to push the expansion forward thus far.
Though Wilson first allocated $2.5 million for the construction of the Frederica Wilson/Juanita Mann Health Center in 2009, it was not approved by the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners until 2011. Ground didn’t break until 2013, and the center was completed by 2015.
Today, Wilson is asking that the county commission make the expansion a priority. She says there is money available for the project and that it must be utilized before it goes away.
“We’re putting pressure on the county commission to hear us, see us, know us, hear the children, hear the community, hear the families, we need our clinic expanded for our children,” Wilson said.
Hawkins also emphasized the importance of holistic health care, which incorporates the often overlooked types such as dental care, as well as care that is both proactive and preventative.
“Post-pandemic we see a lot of individuals that are starting to utilize the emergency room as their primary care center, which really isn’t appropriate for multiple reasons,” he said.
Hawkins explained that healthcare providers in an emergency room are only able to focus on acute needs, such as prescribing pain medicine or setting a broken bone, for instance. They won’t, however, assess your overall health.
Emergency room visits are also 10-15 times more expensive than a visit to see a primary care physician, Hawkins said. He noted that while the emergency room may cost $800 to $1,500 per visit, patients visiting a JTCHS facility on its sliding fee scale could pay approximately $25 to $150 based on what insurance they qualify for.
Even so, Hawkins said that JTCHS “won’t turn anybody away for services, regardless of their ability to pay.”
Established in 1967 and today serving patients throughout the City of Miami, Liberty City, Hialeah, Miami Gardens and unincorporated Miami-Dade, JTCHS is intended to make it easier for residents to make healthcare a priority (and avoid pricey emergency visits).
“You could take control of your life and really focus on, ‘How do I live the healthiest life that I can at this point in time?’” Hawkins said. “And my providers are here to make sure that we give you all the tools and information that you need in order to be successful in living your best and healthiest life.”
This story was produced by The Miami Times, one of the oldest Black-owned newspapers in the country, as part of a content sharing partnership with the WLRN newsroom. Read more at miamitimesonline.com.
