Children receiving speech and audiology services from the Children’s Treatment Centre got a huge boost recently from Sertoma members.
The Sertoma Foundation of Canada, on behalf of the Thamesville Sertoma and LaSertoma Clubs, and the Chatham Sertoma Club, presented the Children’s Treatment Centre Foundation with a cheque for $25,500 in support of the Centre’s Speech and Audiology programs.
The services are open to all ages, allowing the Centre to keep children with long-term disabilities on caseload, and accept new adult referrals. The Children’s Treatment Centre is the only facility in the region that is not-for-profit and has certified audiologists providing services to all ages.
Over the past four years, the Sertoma Foundation has donated more than $115,000 to support the Centre in purchasing needed equipment, allowing the audiologists to perform specialized diagnostic testing to children and adults in our community.
“The Sertoma Foundation’s support of the Centre is invaluable,” said Sandra Dekok, Audiology Service Manager. “Their continued assistance will allow us to reach out and support our community in countless ways.”
The funding will help the Centre purchase more age-appropriate therapy supplies, materials and communication games for elementary and secondary school-aged clients, and will also help fund the Babies and Books Belong Together campaign, a partnership between several community agencies that promotes early literacy and language development by providing new parents with a book, guides, and development milestones for their babies.
Additionally, the funding will allow the Centre to hire a Communication Disorders Assistant (CDA) to support audiology services. Hiring an additional CDA will help with shorter wait times for newborns, more hearing tests throughout the community, less wait times for hearing aid repairs, added support during busy times, and provide basic testing allowing audiologists to focus on more detailed needs.
