Free dental clinic for homeless, low-income Montrealers doubles its capacity after renovation
An entirely free dental clinic for low-income and homeless Montrealers has doubled its capacity after a renovation project.
The Jim Lund Dental Clinic can now treat 6,000 people a year. The clinic is for Montrealers who don’t have access to private or governmental insurance.
“There are people living below the poverty line and it’s really an opportunity for us to help out people who are also new arrivals to Montreal who maybe haven’t seen a dentist for a good number of years,” said Sam Watts, the CEO of Welcome Hall Mission.
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“People in need deserve our best. They don’t deserve our second best.”
Welcome Hall Mission, in partnership with McGill University’s Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences, celebrated the completion of the expansion work Tuesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“There is a need, a growing need for people to access high quality dental care,” said Dr. Liliane Malczewski, president of the Order of Dentists of Quebec. “We know that there are current initiatives from the federal government to open up, with the federal dental care program, access to care to reduce these financial barriers. But we still notice that there is a big gap to fill.”
Established in 2011, the free dental clinic in Saint-Henri went from three to six chairs. Renovation work began in October.
McGill says the expansion aligns with faculty’s commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
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“We have patients from different backgrounds, different socioeconomic backgrounds, different ethnic backgrounds, different histories because this is also part of the diversity,” said Elham Emami, Dean of McGill’s Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences. “And we are able to provide also bilingual, and not only bilingual, multilingual care. So that includes our inclusive approaches, because we serve everybody that are in need.”
In addition to other donations from partners and contributors, GreenShield gave $1.35 million to this expansion.
“I grew up in Quebec,” said Steve Laberge, senior vice-president for GreenShield. “This is a way for us in our company to really help locally, where we have a national footprint. We operate from coast to coast. But those investments are local, they’re here in Quebec, they’re for people that we know, the community that we live in.”
