Essex mum unable to find speech therapist for 13 year old son with stammer
She says there are no available appointments or waiting lists
More than 65,000 children across the UK are waiting for speech and language therapy, due to a covid-caused backlog, according to the NHS Confederation.
Lizi Jackson-Barrett, who lives near Romford, is among those struggling to access specialist support for her 13 year old son, Jacob, who's had a severe stammer since he was 9: "We've been trying to find a speech therapist for Jacob for quite a while now with very little luck at all.
"What I've found has happened is that during the pandemic a lot of NHS speech therapists were redeployed to Covid wards, which meant a lot of speech therapists then left the NHS, leaving private speech therapists to pick up the slack.
"If find they're private therapists are now inundated with more work than they can cope with, and it means that when I've been contacting them, they don't even have a waiting list that I can join. Because they are so overwhelmed with demand, they're just saying no and turning people away."
We asked Lizi's local NHS trust, NELFT about their Speech and Language department.
A NELFT spokesperson said: “We are unable to provide specific comment on individual cases in the interest of patient confidentiality. The Trust constantly reviews the quality of care and treatment we provide to ensure we continuously strive to deliver the best possible outcomes for patients.”
They also told us: "Many professional groups of NHS staff were redeployed during the pandemic, however this has now ceased and all staff have returned to their primary roles."
Lizi tells us not having access to specialist support is having a big impact on Jacob: "He gets incredibly frustrated. It's really, really hard just watching him trying to get a sentence out, let alone being him, who's just trying to join in with a conversation with his friends or family. It takes so much effort and it's such hard work for him - it's really physically tiring for him.
"It's also affecting his ability to socialise in a regular way and to have friends and take part in the chatter that goes on in the playground - all of those things that are part of growing up, he's missing out on."
As she's been unable to find an expert to support Jacob, Lizi has had to find other ways to cope, and help out her son: "Jacob did learn a few strategies from a speech therapist about a year ago, and it's been slightly helpful when he uses those strategies, so we've been trying very hard to practice them at home.
"To motivate him we've set up and a fundraiser, where friends and family have been sponsoring Jacob to practice his strategies. He's raising money for Chigwell Riding Trust, the local riding for the disabled centre that he rides at every week.
"Doing it for a cause he really cares about is motivating him to do the practice each day and I do think we're seeing a slight improvement in his ability to control what he's trying to say and express himself the way he wants to, but it really is a very poor second to having proper specialist professional help."
Whilst Lizi says it's tough, she's not giving up just yet: "For any parent who sees their child struggling in any way, it's a really frustrating and painful experience because we just want our kids to to be happy...
"It's a very it's specialist area within speech therapy, so I think it's going to be a real challenge to find anyone who has the ability, space and availability to do that, but I'm not giving up yet.
"I'm sure there must be someone out there who can help Jacob to communicate the way he'd like to."