Urgent dental clinic may become casualty of DuPage budget crisis

First of an occasional series examining the impact of DuPage County's doomsday budget for next year.

Getting a tooth pulled is a worst-case dental scenario for most people, but for Dee Brading the opposite prevails.

If it weren't for the DuPage County Health Department's Urgent Dental Clinic, she couldn't afford to get rid of the tooth that's caused her pain for days.

"If I went to a regular dentist for an extraction it would run $100," Brading said.

That's out of the price range of the 70-year-old West Chicago resident whose Medicare benefits don't extend to dental work.

The urgent dental clinic schedules 1,800 visits a year. One-third of the patients are children, two-thirds are adults and seniors.

Despite its popularity, the clinic is slated to become a casualty of the county's budget crisis, as are many other health and human services programs.

County board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom's proposed fiscal plan would eliminate 235 jobs. The 2008 budget is for $376 million, while the corporate budget, which includes salaries for most employees, is $132 million -- $9.5 million less than in 2007.

Overall, funding for health and human services and education will drop by $2.5 million in 2008.

Among the major losers are the DuPage Convalescent Center and the DuPage County Health Department, which face a $2.1 million cut.

The dental clinic has a budget of $200,000 that pays for contract dentists and staff.

"We have over 1,000 extractions a year," clinic director Mila Tsagalis said.

"It shouldn't get to the point where this happens. But usually by the time you see a client, there isn't an alternative. It has to come out."

Typical clients are seniors or single parents who work but don't get dental benefits from their employer.

"It's generally people who've fallen on hard times," Tsagalis said.

That's also been the experience of dentist Carlla Franklin.

"I've had older patients break down crying; they've been working for 30 years and now they need help," she said.

The clinic originally offered free services but has switched to a small fee that tops out at $35 for an extraction.

"If they don't have money and are in pain, we'll still treat them because they have no other option," Tsagalis said.

"Seeing clients here saves money for the county; it keeps people working, it keeps them employed, they don't have to go to the ER."

Another budget target will be free breast and cervical cancer screenings offered by the health department. Those would be discontinued.

Department Executive Director Maureen McHugh said the program has diagnosed 47 women with breast cancer in the past few years.

"If that amount of people died because of a lack of public safety there would be an outcry," she said.

'Ax over our heads'

Another vital part of the county's human services is the DuPage Convalescent Center, which was slashed by $3.5 million in 2007.

As a result, 51 full-time and 69 part-time jobs were cut.

A proposed $200,000 reduction in the budget compounds the problem, convalescent center administrator Beth Welch said.

"We're stuck between a rock and a hard place. With $3.5 million, we're already cut to the quick," she said.

The county provides a $2 million subsidy to the facility, which would go down to $1.8 million. Other revenues of about $26 million come from Medicare and Medicaid payments and private patients plus $1.4 million from catering, vending, pharmacy and cleaning services the center offers.

"We're not just asking the county to take care of us," Welch said.

Diversity is a key to the convalescent center. Rather than a population of seniors, the age mix of its 360 residents ranges from 24 to 104.

It's a bright, clean place, where art decorates the walls and people greet each other in the halls.

But with the threat of cuts, "there's an ax hanging over our heads," said Elayne Richer, 80. The Glen Ellyn resident came to the convalescent center after she fell and hurt her back in 2002.

"We're the greatest generation and they're dumping us," she said.

Delizia DeBella, 79, from Wheaton, suffers from multiple sclerosis and osteoporosis.

"This lovely, deadly combination caused me to fall twice in my home. I broke my femur, which is not a good thing to break," she said.

Asked how she'd cope without the convalescent center, DeBella replied: "How does the street sound?"

Domino effect

The fallout from the doomsday budget includes not just county employees and services but outside agencies.

The county used to give out grants to community nonprofit groups that serve the needy. In 2006, $750,000 was distributed to 44 agencies ranging from DuPage PADS, which helps homeless individuals, to the Northern Illinois Food Bank, a regional service.

In 2007, that money was slashed. As a result, about 24 people lost their jobs at the nonprofits, county Human Services Director Phil Smith said.

In 2008, zero has been budgeted for the agencies.

Smith said the funds given to nonprofit groups go a long way and the services they provide enhance the county's efforts.

"We're part of a network referring clients to each other," he said.

Another non-governmental organization that receives county funding is Access DuPage, a nonprofit coalition of hospitals, doctors and volunteers that links uninsured residents with medical care. The agency served about 9,600 people last year.

The county cut the grant to Access by 50 percent in the 2007 budget; this year another reduction is planned.

To counter the loss, the organization used up its reserves and ran a deficit, said Access DuPage President Dick Endress.

"There's not a lot of wiggle room," he said.

While local hospitals stepped in to help fill the gap, it's unfair to expect the private sector to step up to the plate while government cuts back, Endress said, explaining, "you can't expect one sector to do it all."

Looming cuts

Some of the proposed reductions to health and human services programs provided by DuPage County and outside agencies:

• DuPage Convalescent Center -- down by $200,000.

• DuPage County Health Department -- down by $2.1 million.

• Human Services Department salaries -- down $130,977. The headcount in the department will go from 23 to 19 employees.

• Family Self-Sufficiency Program -- down $13,800.

• Access DuPage program -- down $21,000.

• Paratransit program -- down by $66,898.

• Mental health funding -- down by $15,600.

• Veterans Assistance program -- down by $11,894.

• Psychological Services -- down by $77,380.

• Grants to nonprofit community agencies -- down to zero. This will affect groups such as DuPage PADs and the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

Source: DuPage County