CHP’s new dental follow in Adams gives welcoming environment, household providers | Northern Berkshires

ADAMS — Soon after Community Health Programs of the Berkshires opened its North Adams dental office, its leaders realized how many of its patients were traveling north for dental care. 

“We found that there’s a good portion of our patients between Adams and North Adams, but transportation wasn’t always easy for them to get from one location to the next,” said Nicole Wilkinson, CHP Berkshires’ director of dental operations.

The new practice at 19 Depot St. is called Adams Family Dental and Family Services — a name reflecting its broader mission of providing support services in addition to dental care for an underserved population. It serves children as well as adult patients. 

Given that demonstrated need, and given Adams’ convenient perch between central and northern Berkshire County, it made sense for CHP to open a practice in Adams. The nonprofit celebrated that achievement Wednesday at an open house and ribbon-cutting, with local business and civic leaders in attendance.

Speakers included Select Board Chair Christine Hoyt, 1Berkshire President and CEO Jonathan Butler, CHP board President Brian Drake, and Casey Pease, director of constituent services for state Sen. Paul Mark. 

Wilkinson said a great deal of attention went into making the office welcoming and accommodating, especially for patients who are anxious about visiting the dentist out of fear of pain or judgement. 

“We wanted it to be an inviting atmosphere as opposed to what a lot of dental clinics are,” she said.

The nonprofit CHP invested $850,000 in the project, receiving grant funding from the Federal Health Resources Services Administration and donations from NBT Bank, the Agnes Lindsey Trust, Barrett Family Foundation, Feigenbaum Foundation and Delta Dental of Massachusetts.

When fully staffed, the new practice, which already is in operation, will have two dentists, one dental hygienist, four dental assistants and support staff. It’s already accepting patients, and will have capacity for 700 patients.

“In the month we’ve been open so far, we have already made a difference for hundreds of families and individuals,” CHP CEO Bethany Kieley said.

There’s currently a dental hygienist shortage, going back to the COVID pandemic, Wilkinson said. The closest schools training hygienists are in the Springfield area and New York state, and hygienists tend to work where they live, she said. 

There’s modern equipment, including all-digital X-rays and computer-driven sterilization equipment to make sure instruments are sterile. There are thoughtful touches, too, such as a TV kids can watch during cleanings, size-inclusive dental chairs, and an office fitted with a headrest that tilts back 180 degrees, allowing patients that use wheelchairs to obtain care.

“I saw a community here that deserved better access to dental care and to be treated with up-to-date, aesthetically pleasing facilities by a team as passionate as I am about the care of their patients,” Wilkinson said.  

CHP also has dental practices in North Adams, Pittsfield and Great Barrington, the latter of which it plans to expand, and a mobile dental clinic. 

The organization launched a comprehensive plan to expand dental care in the Berkshires in 2021, amid shortages of dental care professionals and fewer dentists accepting MassHealth insurance over its reimbursement rates for dental care. While reimbursements have improved for federally qualified health centers, the rates remain lower than what private insurers offer, Wilkinson said.  

According to Wilkinson, there are between 2,000 and 2,500 MassHealth subscribers in Adams, and another 2,000 in North Adams. 

Those patients tend to underutilize dental services, Wilkinson said. “It’s a little bit of fear, a little bit of priorities … a lot of people have dental insurance don’t take advantage of it. They don’t see the importance of it.”

But there are close connections between dental health and overall health, Wilkinson pointed out. 

“If you’re living with a low-grade infection in your mouth for years, it affects the rest of your body,” she said. “We’re treating the whole patient.”

The practice also includes a family services branch, which offers free food distribution for area residents, on the first and third Tuesdays of every month from 1 to 2:30 p.m., and is planning a farmers market starting in late June — part of the nonprofit’s commitment to connecting residents to healthy locally grown food.

But its services go well beyond food insecurity: It also provides diapers, children’s books, kids and adult clothing exchange and other assistance to area families. 

Lorie Bolte, of North Adams, staffs the office and works with families in need. A former foster parent and adoptive parent who served in the U.S. Army, she describers herself as “a helper.”

“I have a conversation with them … I need to see what they want and what their needs are,” Bolte said. “I can connect them to rehab if they need it. I can help them fill out housing applications.”

“I’ve dropped off groceries at somebody’s house if they need it because they don’t have transportation,” she added. “I will go above and beyond because I know I don’t know everybody’s story. And I’m not judging anybody.”

Butler and Hoyt both hailed CHP Berkshire’s investment in Adams, as well as the additional service it will provide in maintaining and improving residents’ health. 

As the region deals with workforce challenges, providing health care options is a factor that “moves the needle” in favor of attracting workers, Butler said. 

“CHP is one of the organizations that’s playing a critical leadership role in addressing that problem, and that’s huge,” he said. “New resources that come into communities like Adams and others make a difference. It makes us a more viable place for families to live.”

The new practice “will have a positive impact here on our community, and particularly on the health of residents,” Hoyt added.