RUMFORD — The River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition heard Tuesday afternoon from Jennifer Thibodeau of the Family Planning Association of Maine about changes made to the group last month.

Speaking at the Rumford Library, Thibodeau, the outreach coordinator for the Family Planning Association, told the coalition that as of Feb. 1, Western Maine Community Action will no longer be in charge of the local coalition. WMCA previously ran four family planning clinics in Franklin, Oxford and Androscoggin counties.

“Because of finances and operations and the way health care is changing on the WMCA side and on the Family Planning Association side, it made sense to stop sub-contracting the clinics to WMCA and run them ourselves,” Thibodeau said.

Thibodeau later added that “WMCA did a fantastic job” with the clinics, and that everybody on the WMCA staff was hired to work with the Family Planning Association.

The Family Planning Association runs 10 clinics around the state, according to Thibodeau, including Rumford Family Planning at 218 Penobscot St., Rumford.

One change made to the Rumford clinic, Thibodeau said, is that the hours were changed from the “standard 9 to 4 p.m. to the more manageable 10:30 to 6 p.m. This way, people can come after work, after school, after sports, whatever people have,” Thibodeau said.

The coalition asked Thibodeau whether the location of the Rumford Family Planning clinic will change, to which Thibodeau replied, “I don’t think there are any plans currently to change locations, though I have heard anecdotally that the location isn’t a favorite.”

RVHCC project coordinator Sandra Witas told Thibodeau that a lot of houses and apartments are located close to the clinic, which may make people who wish to remain anonymous feel uncomfortable.

Thibodeau said, “Personally, I hope it changes in the near future, but I don’t know if there are any plans for it in the next year.”

In other business, Kathy Gregory, patient services coordinator for Community Dental, told the coalition that Community Dental is hoping to create more of a presence in the Rumford area in terms of dental health.

“The first step to that is working with the RVHCC and Mountain Valley Middle School to bring direct dental services right to the kids at the middle school,” Gregory said. “Parents are fairly good about getting little kids to the dentist, and then in middle school, the kids get a little more defiant, and their cavity rates go up, and they don’t end up showing up at our doors anymore.”

Gregory said that Community Dental recently received a grant and is working with Forsyth School of Dental Hygiene in Boston to get the program up and running.

“We’ve purchased mobile equipment, and we have a space identified at the middle school,” Gregory said. “We’re going to take a dentist on site and sign the kids up. If they can’t make it to us on the island, we’re going to see them at school. Our plan is to be able to do operative services, like filling cavities, right there at the school.”

Although Gregory said that Community Dental has begun preparations, she also added that “there is a lot of red tape, a lot of sharing of information involved, and a lot of business parts to take care of, but we’re ready to go.”

“We can provide dental services in a closet if we have to,” Gregory joked.

The next community networking meeting for the River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition will be held on March 27.

[email protected]