Parents file lawsuit against Quebec over delays in getting their child into speech therapy

The parents of a four-year-old child have filed a lawsuit against Quebec's Health Ministry, saying the wait time to get their daughter into speech therapy is too long and is damaging her well-being.

Christina Sara, 4, has childhood apraxia, a rare motor disorder that makes it difficult for her to match the movement of her lips, tongue and jaw to the words she's trying to say.

If left untreated, the disorder may hinder her learning and social skills in the long-term, her parents say.

"I was afraid that if she didn't start speech therapy, when she went to kindergarten with all these other five year olds that could speak, she wouldn't be able to keep up," said Christina's mother, Stephanie Bates.

Christina underwent an assessment at the McGill University Health Centre in February, which recommended "speech and language intervention" at the MAB-Mackay Rehabilitation Centre, in the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough.

The centre is managed by the regional health authority, the CIUSSS of West-Central Montreal.

The CIUSSS sent a letter to the family on March 12, saying that services would start at the Mackay Centre between January and March 2019.

"That's unacceptable," said Christina's father, Fadi Sara.

"It's a flagrant case of negligence on the government's part."

Family claiming $14,999

Sara filed a lawsuit in the small-claims division of Quebec Court on Aug. 3, accusing the Quebec government, including the Ministry of Health and Social Services and the Justice Ministry, of negligence.

The government has failed to provide "healthcare for a condition that requires immediate intervention," the lawsuit alleges, and the situation has caused the family "extreme psychological distress."

"The stress is crushing," said Sara, who is claiming $14,999 in the lawsuit, plus interest and court fees.

Contacted by CBC News, the Health Ministry said it couldn't comment "out of respect for the ongoing judicial procedure."

Neither the ministry, nor the CIUSSS of West-Central Montreal, said it would grant CBC News an interview about how health services for children with apraxia are administered.

In a statement, the CIUSSS of West-Central Montreal said commenting "could have direct or indirect repercussions on the confidentiality of patients."

Delays not a surprise, says speech-language pathologist

Paul-André Gallant is a speech-language pathologist and the president of the province's Order of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists.

He said he's not surprised by delays in the healthcare system.

"We have those wait lists that are unacceptable," Gallant said.

There are about 2,700 speech-language pathologists affiliated to the order, the most in Quebec's history, said Gallant.

Despite this, however, he said long wait times for therapy show there aren't enough specialists to respond to people's needs.

He said recent research suggests that speech and language therapy should start within eight months of when a person is diagnosed with a condition, depending on the person's age and the severity of the case.

"If someone breaks their leg, we're not going to wait for years to do something," Gallant said.

One hour of therapy per week

Christina is taking hour-long, private speech-language therapy sessions with a specialist in Côte-des-Neiges every week. Her parents said she needs more than that, but it's all they can currently afford.

They receive a federal tax credit of about $230 per month, which covers about half of the monthly cost of her therapy, Sara told CBC News.

The rest of the week, Bates does daily exercises with Christina — and the results have been "life-changing," Sara said.

"It was [like] night and day," he said.

"[Over] the course of a couple weeks," Bates said, "she went from saying words completely incorrectly, to being able to say words correctly, to stringing together a proper sentence, to telling stories she's never told before."

With files from CBC's Matt D'Amours