Desperate for better care for their son with cerebral palsy, this P.E.I. family turned to Alberta
'We want to push him and challenge him because he's capable of learning'
A P.E.I. family says the province's health system failed their young son to the point where they shelled out thousands of dollars to get him care in Alberta on top of the support he was given back home.
Sixteen-month-old Elliot Rossiter has cerebral palsy. Since his diagnosis six months ago, a number of specialists on the Island have been seeing the Miscouche child every four to five weeks.
His parents, Kate DesRoches and Spencer Rossiter, say that isn't enough.
"They really thrive off of routine therapy… weekly. It's hard that on the Island… it seems like that's not going to be a possibility for Elliot," his mother told CBC News.
"It's really unfortunate for Elliot's sake that that is how it is — and his success might be altered due to the unavailability."
Here on P.E.I., Elliot sees vision and hearing specialists in Charlottetown, and also gets speech, occupational and physical therapy in Summerside.
But his mom said those visits amount to only about 20 minutes with each specialist per appointment. The family was told the reason was a lack of therapists and a large volume of patients.
So in February, to get him more care, DesRoches travelled with Elliot and his baby sister to the Canadian Centre of Development in Calgary.
Elliot's team at the centre saw him every day for three weeks, and DesRoches said he's developed and gotten stronger because of it.
He's now able to sit up for short periods of time and has started trying to take steps with the help of a walker — though his mom said she was told in P.E.I. that he wasn't ready for that piece of equipment.
"Elliot made so many accomplishments out there in such a short amount of time," said DesRoches, now back on the Island.
"We don't want accommodation; we want to see progression. We want to see him learn new skills. We want to push him and challenge him because he's capable of learning and doing these things."
'It's super frustrating'
In a statement to CBC News, Health P.E.I. said it can't speak about Elliot's particular case. The agency did say that hundreds of children receive pre-school pediatric services on the Island, and the team often works with out-of-province rehabilitation centres to deliver the latest evidence-based strategies for care.
"Despite the high demand for those services, therapy teams work closely with families and other health professionals in their collective effort to provide the best outcomes for children in need of support," the statement reads.
"We as an organization would want to provide more supports to families if and when possible. As a small province, however, there can unfortunately be challenges with growing certain services. Ongoing efforts have been focused on continuing to grow and expand pre-school pediatric service so that we can continue to support Islanders in need."
Elliot's parents paid $4,700 to have him attend the Calgary centre for those three weeks, plus the cost of flights and a rental vehicle. Luckily, Rossiter had relatives in the Calgary area who were able to put them up.
DesRoches said the medical travel assistance program Hope Air tried to help her family pay for their flights, but Health P.E.I. denied the request because the Calgary centre is a private institution.
"It's super-frustrating for us… that it feels like P.E.I. health care has failed us by not having that support in place," she said.
"I think there's seven other families [on the Island] that travel out to Calgary… for this centre, and that's solely because we don't have that care here."
Support… from Health P.E.I. would really make the world of a difference.— Kate DesRoches
DesRoches worries that the gains Elliot made in Alberta will disappear now that he's returning to one appointment every few weeks.
She said all of his therapists here at home are great, but the workload means they can only manage Elliot's needs and not help him develop new skills.
The family wants to return to Calgary twice a year for his care — but that would come at a big cost. And they hope Health P.E.I. will agree to help with it.
"There's not those resources in place, which is fine, but that's not an excuse for Health P.E.I. to not step in and want to help these families get the care they need for their kids," DesRoches said.
"Support… from Health P.E.I. would really make the world of a difference — not just for our family but for other families as well."