Kununurra mother-of-three Amy Williams is at her wit's end after failing to get her three-year-old daughter, who has a rare speech disorder, enough face-to-face support in Western Australia's Kimberley region.
Childhood apraxia of speech is a lifelong condition that limits Taylah's ability to produce words, despite having a full comprehension of what others are saying.
"It's pretty scary … there's no-one else that I know in this town suffering from the same condition," Ms Williams said.
"I've joined a few groups online for a bit of support, but it can be quite lonely not having anyone to reach out to, [who's] going through exactly what you're going through."
Capacity for one session a week
The motor speech disorder is rare and is frustrating for the three-year-old, who can only communicate using a handful of words.
Treatment requires specialised intensive therapy to practice syllables, words, and phrases. Ms Williams said securing support had been challenging while living in such a remote location.
"Intensive speech therapy, they say, is three to five sessions per week," she said.
"Through the public system, through allied health, they've only got the capacity for one session a week."
According to data released in state parliament, the current wait time for children from referral to appointment for a speech therapist in the Kimberley is more than 79 days.
Lengthy wait times of 158 and 193 days apply for occupational therapy and physiotherapy respectively.
Finding support
Such delays prompted Ms Williams to pursue support via the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
"It was a fight to get the NDIS because we were constantly asked for an official diagnosis," she said.
"It's very difficult to diagnose this condition when there is such little speech, so there was a lot of back and forth."
After being approved, Ms Williams was told Taylah was no longer eligible for support through the public system.
With only one private speech therapist in the town, who works part time and has extensive waitlists, she felt like she was back at square one.
"We're still on her waitlist. We don't know [when we will get an appointment]," Ms Williams said.
"The most that she can accommodate us is for one session a week but Taylah needs a lot more than that."
Support from 3,000km away
Ms Williams has been teaching her child how to form words under the direction of a specialist located 3,000 kilometres away in Perth.
"The speech therapist talks me through it so basically I become her speech therapist," she said.
"With a three-year-old that is quite difficult. You can image the engagement with a screen … is not ideal."
The family have taken drastic steps to get Taylah the support she needs, at significant personal expense.
"[We're] looking at flying the family down to Perth twice a year and then we will look at flying the speech therapist up and accommodating her twice a year for some face-to-face treatment," Ms Williams said.
Tight supply of professionals
WA Centre for Rural Health director Sandra Thompson said Taylah's situation was all too common amid a tight supply of allied health professionals in the state's regions, including speech therapists.
"Just because you have the [NDIS] package doesn't mean there is an allied health professional there to support you," Dr Thompson said.
"The services are often drive-in-drive-out or fly-in-fly-out, so there may be a service but it may be that you have access to an allied health professional once a month.
"Whereas a person in the city might get a lot more access to ongoing support.
"Telehealth has made a bit of a difference but not everything can be done via telehealth."
She said a range of factors, including limited housing and a lack of professional development and career development opportunities, were major impediments to attracting and retaining staff in remote areas.
Call to expand relief scheme
WA Health Services Union secretary Naomi McRae said the state government's new student HECS-HELP relief scheme for nurses should be expanded to include allied health professionals.
The program provides grants of $12,000 to assist with student loan debt to attract up to 350 more nurses and midwives to remote areas.
"It's very positive for nurses and they're much needed in country areas, but there is also an incredibly serious need for allied health professionals, so extending it … would make the most sense," she said.
"[It would be] just a recognition that is needed that allied health is playing an incredibly important role in preventative health and community-based treatment.
"We need to see allied health supported so that those practitioners can work in regional areas and keep people out of hospitals."
