THE
RiteCare Reporter
COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER - WINTER 2014
RiteCare Gave Us Hope Quinn Yate’s journey to RiteCare was over two years in the making. Quinn was a quiet, content little baby happy to simply stay in her parent’s arms. At her one year checkup, it became clear that Quinn was not developing normally for her age, but no further information was given to help determine a “diagnosis” or the treatment she would need to overcome her unique challenges. Jill and Paul Yates found themselves thrust into a system that lacked information, answers, and hope. They waited months for appointments and tests that did not provide the diagnoses they needed to qualify for early intervention programs or to seek treatment of any kind. In the next two years, Quinn was seen in 9 clinics and hospitals, and evaluated by multiple agencies serving children ages 0-3 and still there were no answers. The Yates’ began to lose hope for Quinn. “It was during those early months of shuffling between appointments and clinics,” recalls Jill, “that I learned how hard it is to suddenly enter the world of special needs. There was a sense of perpetual grieving because where and how could we move forward when we had no answers?” The Yates’ also began to realize how critically important being able to communicate within our social world truly is, even for a child. Quinn could not be left with unknown caretakers. She was unable to express her interests, fears, hurts, sorrows or joys. She couldn’t communicate anything. “The hardest part for me,” Jill says “was that she could not interact as an equal with her siblings or peers.” The situation seemed devoid of hope, but hope was actually waiting for Jill right across the hall. Jill is a teacher and her teaching partner at the time had worked with a family who had faced similar challenges. She had heard of a parent education class at RiteCare’s Shoreline Clinic and recommended it to Jill. Jill enrolled, and their hope for answers and a future for Quinn began. RiteCare’s Barb McKague, SLP, was teaching the class and first met the Yates’ when Quinn was 2. She had never spoken a word. “Quinn had 4 sounds,” Barb remembers, “which she used inconsistently. For all intents and purposes, she was silent.” After the class, Quinn was enrolled in therapy with Barb, beginning her 5 year transformation. The first year was tough. Barb often had to hold Quinn’s lips or move her mouth, but at the end of year one, Quinn had 7 words! The miraculous progress continued from there. At four, Quinn could say 35 words! At five, the Yates’ heard Quinn say “mom” for the first time. They also heard her first 3 word sentence. Quinn began to tell simple stories about her day; finally able to share her joys with her family. Today, at seven, Quinn is a reader, a strong student, a jokester, talks a lot and is easily understood. She is ready to graduate from RiteCare! Quinn’s future is bright and full of hope. “There is no doubt in our minds, RiteCare has been the hero in our Quinn’s life!”
A legacy of service; a vision for the future As our 30th anniversay year draws to a close, all of us at RiteCare of Washington are thankful for your support. Our success in delivering the highest quality of care is shaped by the energy, experience, and involvement of individuals like you. We are grateful for our heritage and those Scottish Rite Masons whose partnership with RiteCare has helped to enrich the lives of hundreds of children each year for over three decades. In the coming year, we hope that the work begun by Scottish Rite Masons will serve as a catalyst, inspiring community partnerships across the state to grow. There is a strong need for increased resources to expand our reach to communities. With your continued support, we look forward to building equally beneficial community partnerships that will expand our services and help children avoid the far-reaching consequences of speech and language delays. David Fagerlie, Executive Director
Word from the top
Washington State covers 71,362 square miles, making it the 18th largest state. The state boasts beautiful coastal lands, rainforests, mountain ranges, grasslands, shrubsteppe and a variety of dry forests. Our weather ranges from maritime coastal to temperate desert and we experience our share of snowfall and ice. Washington is as diverse as it is expansive and the great variety of topography and weather complicates travel and makes it expensive. This beautiful state is also home to more than 15,000 children who need the intensive speech and language therapy that RiteCare provides. Those 15,000 kids are widely dispersed across our varied landscape. This can make accessing treatment difficult, time consuming, costly, and at times risky for many of our families in need. At RiteCare, our goal is not just to treat children with
speech and language difficulties, but to also make it easy for families to locate our programs and access our services. To these ends our goal is to increase the number of programs and clinics available to families throughout the state and to expand our services into new areas that are desperately underserved. RiteCare believes that every child and family should have easy access to life-changing speech and language services, as close to their home as possible. Your support has made it possible to provide clinics in Seattle and Spokane and to provide services in 7 other communities across the state. It has also facilitated efforts to add services in an 8th community and additional therapy staff in its Spokane clinic in 2015. We are grateful for all you do. Thank you for joining with us, to support the important services RiteCare provides to children across our state. John Lunt, President, Board of Directors
Voices of the Valleys
News from RiteCare’s Sponsored Programs
RiteCare of Washington is expanding its services to the northern Olympic Peninsula. In conjunction with Scottish Rite Masons in Bremerton, and Speech Language Pathologist Dana Braswell Doss, RiteCare will open its 8th sponsored program in early December. The first child is already enrolled to begin therapy with Dana at her new clinic, Dungeness Speech and Language. The Bremerton sponsored program will enable families who are currently traveling incredible distances into the RiteCare Shoreline Clinic to access services closer to home. Getting a child to their speech therapy appointments should not require such costly investments of a family’s time. Now, thanks to the Masons in Bremerton, Do you know a child that could it will be easier and far less time consuming for children to receive the lifebenefit from our services? changing therapies they need. RiteCare has 10 program sites across The Scottish Rite Masons are passionately committed to supporting RiteCare and Washington, delivering life-changing ensuring that its programs continue to grow and impact the lives of more children therapies every day. If you know of a child across the state. Under the leadership of Al Jorgensen, the Masons are dedicated who may need our services, call 855-543to ensuring RiteCare has an established presence in each of the Masonic “Valleys” 8255 or visit www.ritecarewa.org to contact across Washington. Their initial financial and operational support enable RiteCare to establish sponsored programs in new areas and help drive the continued growth and the program closest to you. success of existing programs. “This new Bremerton sponsored program is an example of RiteCare sponsored programs for the future,” said David Fagerlie, Executive Director of RiteCare of Washington. “Masons played a key leadership role in getting this program off the ground and rallying the community to invest in establishing this program. It is an awesome partnership for us and a model we hope to replicate.” RiteCare of Washington owns and operates two speech therapy clinics, one in Shoreline and one in Spokane. In addition to Bremerton, RiteCare operates 8 other sponsored programs across the state to serve the thousands of children who are did you outside of the service areas of our clinics. The RiteCare sponsored program model ensures those children have access to the highest quality of speech therapy possible in their area. know? Sponsored programs are delivered by a clinician or clinic already operational in the area. With the help of our clinical staff and local Scottish Rite leadership, RiteCare identifies and contracts with that clinician to provide the services kids need without regard to a families ability to afford treatment.
Meet Dana
Dana has been an SLP for 25 years and has worked with all ages and types of communication disorders. Dana founded Capital Speech and Learning Professionals in 1999 and has recently opened Dungeness Speech and Language as her second location on the Peninsula. Dana values the close working relationships she develops with the children and families she serves. Her expertise and experience ensures that RiteCare’s newest clients will be well served. Dana says of her desire to get involved with RiteCare, “I have known many families whose children could not receive services for speech and language delays because they had no insurance or could not afford to pay co-pays and deductibles. Children need to be seen once or twice a week to make good progress. RiteCare has covered what insurance didn’t and what families couldn’t for dozens of children in Olympia. I knew when I moved to the Peninsula there were many families with young children in the same situation. I was a part of the RiteCare program during my time in Olympia and I jumped at the opportunity to bring RiteCare’s services to these families.”
Be a Champion for Children Your involvement supports our mission At RiteCare, our mission is to empower children to communicate. Our intensive therapies provide life-changing outcomes for kids and their families. There are many ways to get involved and support our kids. •
Advocate: Build community awareness and support in your area for RiteCare’s programs and services
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Volunteer: Give the gift of your time to support RiteCare programs, events and fundraisers
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Refer: Change the life of children in need and connect them to RiteCare’s services
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Donate: Your financial support changes lives for more kids across Washington
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Leave a Legacy: Remember RiteCare in your estate planning today to give kids a future tomorrow
No matter how you choose to get involved, we appreciate your support. Visit www.ritecarewa. org for more information.
Spotlight on the Rodgers Joe and Delby Rodgers have spent more than a decade serving the children and staff in the RiteCare Spokane Clinic. Joe is a retired master sergeant who served in both the U.S. AirForce and Navy. After his service, Joe began a career working for the Veteran’s Association Medical Center (VA) in Spokane as an electrician. Not long into his career with the VA, Joe met, and married, a beautiful young woman named Delby who also worked at the VA in the finance office. Joe is a Shriner and a Scottish Rite mason and Delby is a Past Queen of Daughters of the Nile. They have spent many years volunteering for and donating to the numerous, worthy causes that the Masonic family supports. About 10 years ago, through their service to Scottish Rite causes, Joe and Delby met Alana Willmann, Office Manager in the Spokane clinic and were introduced to RiteCare. They have been dedicated champions of our mission since. We recently sat down with Joe and Delby Rodgers to learn more about their passion for RiteCare. RiteCare (RC): How did you become involved with RiteCare? Joe and Delby (JD): Joe and I were invited to a RiteCare Christmas party where we met Alana. She was such a delightful young lady and told us all about RiteCare and the work they do to help kids. We started helping as much as we could. The staff started referring to us as Mr. and Mrs. Clause, because we would find out about a need that RiteCare had and we would fill it. We would purchase toys, or games or anything that they needed for the kids in therapy. We love doing it and get a lot of pleasure out of seeing the kids and handing out the raffle prizes at the annual Christmas party. RC: What triggered your passion for RiteCare? JD: We wanted to help children. We have seen the improvement in the kid’s speech and how much it helps them for their whole life. If you can’t communicate you are in darkness and we want to help these kids out of that darkness. Plus, it is lots of fun! We love RiteCare. RC: What is your vision for RiteCare’s Future? JD: That you could have more therapists and help more kids. There seems to be more of a need now for this type of help for children. We have seen the kids who come in and can’t speak well and then a year later at the next Christmas party, they have made so much progress and speak so well. It is wonderful to see the progress they make and to be a part of it.
Building better futures
Language is the foundational tool for all learning. Children who struggle with verbal communication are at an increased risk for poor academic performance. Unfortunatley the prevelance of childhood speech and language delays are growing. According to a study by the American Academy of Pediatrics the incidence of speech disorders in children has risen 63% in the last decade. Early interventions are key! Many communication disorders can be reversed or even prevented with early treatment. Early interventions are efficient: each dollar spent in treatment during early childhood saves $7 in services/ education later on. Early interventions are critical to preventing children from falling behind developmentally, academically and socially.
Use your plate for good Did you know that when you purchase the “Helping Kids Speak� special license plate in Washington the proceeds support RiteCare of Washington?
ds need you!
You er your time or can makepurchase a gift pleasethem call online at www.dol.wa.gov or by visiting the 8255, or goDepartment to www.ritecarewa.org of Licensing office in your area.
Not all gifts fit in a box
Join our donor club this holiday season and make a gift that continues throughout the year. Joining is easy and provides steady support for children and families who need answers, hope and education. When you become a member of the RiteCare Donor Club, your monthly gift is automatically sent to your community RiteCare program, which is great for our kids and hassle-free for you.
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Give Anwsers: Your dollars can help provide an evaluation for a child, giving parents the answers they desperately need.
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Give Hope: Your donation helps us deliver speech and language therapy and fulfill our mission of changing life-long outcomes for children.
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Give Education: Your gift can help improve the lives of our families by enabling us to provide speech education classes for parents and family members. Signup today at www.ritecarewa.org/donate
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