Puente partnerships move women’s health and dental services to center stage Many women living in and around the South Coast contend with impediments to access to care, language barriers, and general lack of health education. Many do not have easy access to a car to get to appointments, let alone a health care provider who speaks Spanish. Thanks to a co-initiative with the San Mateo County Health System, Puente is now offering a women’s clinic on the last Wednesday of the month. Marissa Pfohl, a nurse practitioner who speaks Spanish and serves on the San Mateo County Street and Field Medicine Team, is in charge. In-house clinic services include basic pelvic exams, breast exams, STD screening, pre-conception counseling, pap smears, mammogram referrals, and most forms of contraception. Puente also ramped up its children’s dental services, thanks to a partnership with the Ravenswood Family Health Center. Ravenswood sets up a mobile dental clinic in a Puente classroom for a day. They bring a child-sized dental chair and other essential equipment, along with some toys. “Knowing that dental caries are largely preventable and simple changes in a family’s lifestyle can help keep the children’s teeth healthy is essential for any community. But it’s especially essential in Pescadero, given how isolated it is, and the fact that getting children to and from their dental appointments can be time consuming, expensive and almost prohibitive for some,” says Yogita Butani Thakur, Chief Dental Officer for the Ravenswood Family Health Center. 18,302 units of health services 10