Health

A very special clinic opens on the South Shore

Advantage Care will serve patients with disabilities

Posted

When Suzanne Reek, of Wantagh, used to bring her young son, Joseph, to the dentist, she would hire a team of two to six people to carry him into the office. Once there, he was strapped down to an examination table for treatment in what the American Dental Association calls a “papoose board,” essentially a stretcher with wide Velcro braces.

In the end, Reek said, she would be hit with a $5,000 bill because her son, who suffered from extreme “dental anxiety,” would inevitably need to be sedated during treatment, which insurance didn’t cover.

Reek’s son, now 15, has autism. He cannot speak, leaving him unable to express when he feels pain or fear, nor does he understand why he must visit the dentist.

Every trip to the dental office was traumatic for the Reeks, as Joseph fought to resist treatment. Then Suzanne discovered Advantage Care last summer, and all of that changed. Suddenly, Joseph no longer needed a team of caregivers to accompany him to the dentist and restrain him, and his family was no longer slapped with costly bills.

“I’ve recommended [Advantage Care] to a lot of people,” said Reek, who is president of the Nassau-Suffolk chapter of the Autism Society of America.

Advantage Care is an affiliate of AHRC, the Nassau County-wide nonprofit organization founded in 1949 that provides a range of services to adults with special needs, from job training and placement to group homes. Advantage Care offers medical and dental services to hundreds of adults living in 83 AHRC homes and 54 stand-alone apartments throughout the county. In total, AHRC supports 2,200 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Advantage Care, which serves children and adults, regardless of whether they receive AHRC services, opened in Brookville a decade ago. On April 29, it cut the ribbon on its newest facility, a state-of-the-art medical clinic at the front of AHRC’s 92,000-square-foot Saul Steinberg Vocational Training Center, in the shadow of Village of Freeport Power Plant No. 2.

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