Rotary Serving Humanity - Free Dental Screening for Cerebral Palsy patients

 

On the 17^th February 2017 the Rotary Club of Princes Town (“the Club”) in pursuing the goal of securing dental treatment for members of the Cerebral Palsy Society of Trinidad and Tobago (“the Society”) successfully partnered with the U.W.I. School of Dentistry as to the screening of 15 members of the Society at its Special Needs Clinic, Mount Hope.

 

This screening exercise was made possible through a collaboration, which elicited the willing co-operation and involvement of the Dental School.   The next stage of the project is due to take place on the 03^rd March 2017 by which time it is intended that all 46 members of the Society would have been screened.  Thereafter based on the recommendations of the Dental School the Club intends as far as possible to provide financial assistance to the Society’s members towards securing their required dental treatment.

 

At 9:00 a.m. Rotarians, the Dental team and members of the Society assembled in the Special Needs Clinic, a clinic dedicated to the treatment of patients with special needs and manned by specially trained staff, for the start of the project. 

 

Dr. Dharmendra Rohit, the School’s Polyclinic Coordinator and direct liaison with the Club welcomed all present and called on Dr. William Smith Director (Ag) of the School of Dentistry to speak.  Dr. Smith spoke of the School’s delight in partnering with the Club to facilitate the screening of the patients through the Dental School.  

 

He was followed by the Club’s President Debbie Roopchand who spoke of the Club’s ongoing commitment towards assisting the members of the Society and in giving assistance to the Society’s members as to their dental needs. 

 

Both the Club and School recognised the importance of partnering in relation to this project with a common ideal of assisting not only those less fortunate in society among us but persons who are specially challenged and in need of dental services.

 

Mr. Phillip Metevier President of the Society expressed the Society’s sincere thanks to the Club and the Dental school for making it possible for the Society’s membership to access the Special Needs Clinic and its services at no cost to the Society, more so as many of its members are unable to afford the cost of private dental care and their caregivers face the challenge of having to wait with them for long periods to access these services through the public sector.

 

The Club expresses its appreciation for the involvement of its Rotarians and friends who attended the project to assist and to the entire dental team at Mount Hope who participated in ensuring the project’s success.  In particular, Doctors Tricia Percival (Lecturer in Child Dental health), Salvacion Barclay (Head of the Special Needs Clinic) and Professor Rahul Naidu Head of the Child Dental Health Clinic at the Dental School.

 

As from July 2016 the Club engaged itself in several distributions of basic needs items to all members of the Society, partnering with them to conduct a full health fair in 2016 and treating its members at Christmas 2016. 

 

The Club through its involvement with the Society recognised the need for its members to access dental care and in its continuing objective to give assistance to the Society’s members have now partnered with the Dental School towards making this possible and today’s screening represents the beginning in achieving this goal.