Lessons I'm learning as an SLP in remote Indigenous communities

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A post shared by Halle Demchuk, MSc(A), SLP (@haepislp)

Now that I've been providing virtual & fly-in services to remote Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario for 2.5 years, I have learned and am continuing to learn about healthcare & services up North... and how incredibly hard it can be to access them.

Clinicians either need to travel in, or families have to travel out, for appointments. But flights are expensive - it costs less for two people to fly round trip to Europe than for one round trip flight within the same province.

Weather plays a huge factor on whether flights are cancelled, and appointments missed. Specialist appointments that are missed might not be rescheduled for 6 months... I have seen all of these situations happen.

Speech therapists are trained extensively on administering tests and analyzing how children are progressing with their speech and language skills, but there are many cases where standardized tests cannot be used. This is because these tests are typically created for white, middle-class American children. Using these tests for Indigenous children is, evidently, not appropriate.

There are currently no standardized tests that are normed for Indigenous children - which automatically puts them at a disadvantage and is not functional. These tests do not take into consideration geographical dialects, their second language learning, or parts of language that may be more meaningful to these populations (e.g., oral story telling).

As a Metis clinician, I am proud to work as an SLP in Northern communities, and I feel that my job is to listen and make suggestions where I am able. These suggestions are: to build on the children's strengths, make appropriate referrals, and invest in the inherent capacity within the community, so they can continue to help their students grow.

These lessons have been invaluable. I’m honoured to keep learning and growing thanks to these experiences.

by Halle Demchuk, SLP

Paediatric SLP | GLP-Trained Clinician | Owner of HAEPI SLP