HMSA Foundation has awarded a $50,000 grant to the Office for Social Ministry Mobile Care Health Project to continue dental services for the poor in West Hawaii through June 30, the end of the fiscal year. At that time Mobile Care will be taken over by the West Hawaii Community Health Center.

Earlier this year, Mobile Care’s other mobile van was transferred to Bay Clinic to expand dental services in East Hawaii.

On the Big Island, in Kona, Kau and North Hawaii, most Quest/Medicaid insured and uninsured children and adults have depended on Mobile Care for emergency and primary dental care since it began in 1997.

“We believe that health care is a right for all,” said Carol Ignacio, executive director of the Office for Social Ministry.

“But on the island of Hawaii the most vulnerable of our population have had limited access to basic dental healthcare,” she said. “HMSA Foundation has supported the operation of Mobile Care for the past 12 years. We are very grateful.”

The Mobile Care Health Project is a partnership of the Office for Social Ministry, a department of the Diocese of Honolulu, and St. Francis Community Health Services. It has provided acute care, prevention, education and advocacy for the underserved in more than 18,500 visits, totaling $1.6 million in uncompensated services.