Alexia Blair’s mission to improve speech therapy access
Published:Wednesday | June 26, 2024 | 12:08 AMShanel Lemmie/Staff Reporter
When Alexia Blair was in high school, she saw the movie The King’s Speech for the first time. Although she had initially wavered between becoming a lawyer or a doctor, watching that film opened her eyes to another side of life, which gradually became more captivating to her. Soon after receiving a scholarship to Nazareth University, then Nazareth College, Blair began her journey to becoming a speech language pathologist. Now five years into her career, she is celebrating the first anniversary of her private practice Hello! Speech Therapy Limited.
“I think my vision for my practice is that I want healthcare that actually cares. I think that’s my foundation, in that [for] people who come for my services, they are already nervous, they’re already stressed, there is enough happening. I don’t want them to feel uncomfortable or too serious, or like I’m going to berate them for doing something wrong [or] not meeting certain requirements.”
She continued, “I want them to feel comfortable; and I find that when my patients are comfortable they’re more willing to share. When they’re sharing, I can find symptoms that may have eluded other healthcare professionals.”
Specialising in stroke-patient recovery and children with speech and language delays, Blair said that early on, she felt the weight of not being able to serve all the people who needed her help. Attempting to rectify that gap, she started the Unlock Your Voice Programme.
“With the Unlock Your Voice Programme, I started that because there’s so few speech therapists, and we all have very long wait lists; we’re not able to reach all of the children who need us. Children, adults, whoever; we just can’t reach them quite as much as we would want to. So I made the programme so that I could reach more.”
She continued, “This programme is for the parents who, they know that [their] child has some speech or language delay and they’re trying to figure out what to do next. They’re not sure if they’re doing the right thing or what to do, so I made this programme where I train the parents on techniques that I would do in a therapy session that they can use with their child.
Incorporating phone calls, home visits, training sessions, a calendar of activities and a WhatsApp group, Blair says she is hoping to build a community of support specifically for parents.
Referring to the WhatsApp group, she said, “It’s for parents to support each other. So even if you don’t renew for the next month, you still have access to the WhatsApp group. It’s kind of isolating if you don’t know what it’s like. [It’s helpful to be in] a group with other people who understand what you’re going through and can give you tips.”
Now, as the 28-year-old looks forward to a second year in business, she says she is hoping for Jamaicans to abandon the wait-and-see method when it comes to speech and language delays in children.
“I want to reach more people. I also want better retention, so I can watch people grow and see them make progress. I find a lot of people call and say they’re interested because they think it’s for the child. But when they hear it [is also] for the parent, they’re not interested any more and it boggles me. I haven’t figured out how to bridge the gap.”
While Blair figures out how to broaden her scope, she says she is grateful to know she is exactly where she is meant to be.
“I think I’m one of the fortunate few who have found the job I think that was made for me. I’m not in a career that I didn’t choose to be in, nor was I forced. I chose it. I was guided to it, and every step of the way [feels] like validation that I am where I am meant to be.”