Access to health care is a problem in the United States, but Kansas is well down the road to 100 percent access to oral health care, thanks to the commitment and vision of a few individuals.
One of them is Jason Wesco, chief operating officer of the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas. For his accomplishments, he was honored recently with the Outstanding Community Leader Award from Oral Health Kansas.
He said that the award “kind of caught me off guard. Nothing quite this nice had happened to me before.”
But, as pleased as he was with the award, Wesco said he was even happier that Galena USD 499 was recognized by Oral Health Kansas with the Outstanding Organization Award.
“We nominated the school district for the award,” Wesco said. “CHC went to Galena and USD 499 provided us with a building where we were able to do dental screenings for every child. We also did cleanings, and were able to do fillings and extractions as well. The school nurse brought the students to us. If Galena can find a way to make this work, then others can do it.”
Originally from Indiana, Wesco earned a bachelor’s degree from Ball State University and a master of arts from Bowling Green State University.
He came to Kansas in 1997. He first worked in several non-profit agencies in the humanities, and later became executive director of the Douglas County Dental Clinic in Lawrence, which provides services to the underserved.
He said that the experience opened his eyes.
“When you’re a kid growing up you don’t think you’re going to help people get access to dental care,” Wesco noted.
While serving as director of operations and community development for the Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved, Wesco wrote a white paper that recommended development of a comprehensive dental program in health centers. He suggested a “hub and spoke” concept, with the hub as a central point from which spokes would be established to target special populations such as Head Start children or nursing home residents.
This concept now provides care to thousands of people in 70 Kansas counties. Wesco provides ongoing technical assistance to four of the nine hubs now in operation, and serves as a resource to safety net dental clinics across the state.
He joined CHC/SEK in 2006. The agency’s dental program started in a 12-by-12-foot dentist with a dentist one day a week. Under his leadership, the program now has five full-time dentists and six hygienists.
“We screen 20,000 kids in southeast Kansas,” Wesco said. “Just the other day we found a young woman in Fort Scott who had an infection in her mouth that was so hot we had to admit her to a hospital for antibiotic treatment.”
Of course, CHC/SEK provides many other services as well as dental care, including medical care for all ages, behavioral health services, with more than 100 professionals and support staff at four clinic sites in Crawford and Cherokee Counties.
“In southeast Kansas, with the level of poverty we have and the degree of need, you can’t do a little bit of anything,” Wesco said. “Once you start in this line of work, you can’t draw too many lines. Everything relates to everything else — we are whole people.”
He has spoken several times lately about the need for health care reform. Because CHC/SEK never refuses care due to inability to pay, it treats many uninsured patients.
“We should be outraged that not everybody has health care,” Wesco said. “It’s not OK that there are so many people without health insurance.”
While there are many who object to government-mandated health care insurance, he pointed out that half of the people who do have insurance are on Medicare or Medicaid.
“These are reasonably efficiently run public health care programs,” Wesco said. “I would rather see bureaucrats and health care than no bureaucrats and no health care.”
He said that he enjoys talking to the public about the crucial issue.
“People have really good questions,” Wesco said. “People have been pretty savvy and are really engaged in health issues.”
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Access to health care is a problem in the United States, but Kansas is well down the road to 100 percent access to oral health care, thanks to the commitment and vision of a few individuals.
One of them is Jason Wesco, chief operating officer of the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas. For his accomplishments, he was honored recently with the Outstanding Community Leader Award from Oral Health Kansas.
He said that the award “kind of caught me off guard. Nothing quite this nice had happened to me before.”
But, as pleased as he was with the award, Wesco said he was even happier that Galena USD 499 was recognized by Oral Health Kansas with the Outstanding Organization Award.
“We nominated the school district for the award,” Wesco said. “CHC went to Galena and USD 499 provided us with a building where we were able to do dental screenings for every child. We also did cleanings, and were able to do fillings and extractions as well. The school nurse brought the students to us. If Galena can find a way to make this work, then others can do it.”
Originally from Indiana, Wesco earned a bachelor’s degree from Ball State University and a master of arts from Bowling Green State University.
He came to Kansas in 1997. He first worked in several non-profit agencies in the humanities, and later became executive director of the Douglas County Dental Clinic in Lawrence, which provides services to the underserved.
He said that the experience opened his eyes.
“When you’re a kid growing up you don’t think you’re going to help people get access to dental care,” Wesco noted.
While serving as director of operations and community development for the Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved, Wesco wrote a white paper that recommended development of a comprehensive dental program in health centers. He suggested a “hub and spoke” concept, with the hub as a central point from which spokes would be established to target special populations such as Head Start children or nursing home residents.
This concept now provides care to thousands of people in 70 Kansas counties. Wesco provides ongoing technical assistance to four of the nine hubs now in operation, and serves as a resource to safety net dental clinics across the state.
He joined CHC/SEK in 2006. The agency’s dental program started in a 12-by-12-foot dentist with a dentist one day a week. Under his leadership, the program now has five full-time dentists and six hygienists.
“We screen 20,000 kids in southeast Kansas,” Wesco said. “Just the other day we found a young woman in Fort Scott who had an infection in her mouth that was so hot we had to admit her to a hospital for antibiotic treatment.”
Of course, CHC/SEK provides many other services as well as dental care, including medical care for all ages, behavioral health services, with more than 100 professionals and support staff at four clinic sites in Crawford and Cherokee Counties.
“In southeast Kansas, with the level of poverty we have and the degree of need, you can’t do a little bit of anything,” Wesco said. “Once you start in this line of work, you can’t draw too many lines. Everything relates to everything else — we are whole people.”
He has spoken several times lately about the need for health care reform. Because CHC/SEK never refuses care due to inability to pay, it treats many uninsured patients.
“We should be outraged that not everybody has health care,” Wesco said. “It’s not OK that there are so many people without health insurance.”
While there are many who object to government-mandated health care insurance, he pointed out that half of the people who do have insurance are on Medicare or Medicaid.
“These are reasonably efficiently run public health care programs,” Wesco said. “I would rather see bureaucrats and health care than no bureaucrats and no health care.”
He said that he enjoys talking to the public about the crucial issue.
“People have really good questions,” Wesco said. “People have been pretty savvy and are really engaged in health issues.”
