A group of parents are concerned about a reduction to speech language pathology services for their children and brought those concerns to Saskatchewan MLAs Tuesday. The parents say that since the spring budget was implemented the number of monthly appointments has been cut in half. Breanne Arnold used to take her child to a speech language pathologist in Regina every two weeks. Now, the speech pathologist makes the trip from Saskatoon once a month. “In fact, their travel time was getting cut and she would no longer be coming to Regina twice a month,” Arnold said. Initially, families were told that a speech language pathologist would be hired for Regina. “But now we’re in the precarious position of not having that [person] hired in the Regina area and only have a [half time pathologist] serving 180 kids,” Arnold said. The Saskatchewan NDP also raised parents’ concerns inside the legislature. “Today Breanne Arnold, Jessica Tiefenbach and Sherry Rieger and their children join us in your gallery. These mothers are here to advocate for the children of Saskatchewan with permanent hearing loss,” NDP MLA Brittney Senger said. The province said work is underway to make improvements. “This year’s budget increases funding for the SLP staffing complement, specifically for hearing health within the Saskatchewan Health Authority. Again, these services are split between Regina and Saskatoon as we work to staff up,” Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said. Cockrill was not available to provide a further explanation on Tuesday, but did say that improvements to service are always being looked into and made.
