PROVIDENCE SPEECH & HEARING CENTER

Results: PSHC was founded in 1965 on the principal to serve ALL patients in need, regardless of age, race or socio-economic background. What began in a single room at a local hospital has grown to become one of the largest clinics of its kind in the country. PSHC has experienced a growing need for speech, language and hearing services among low-income populations and has expanded in the past two years to seven locations, serving all of Orange County and Los Angeles at the following locations: Cerritos, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Irvine, Orange, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach. PSHC strives to achieve its mission of enriching life through the gifts of speech and hearing by continually providing the highest quality services in the identification, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of speech, language and hearing disorders – especially since PSHC is the ONLY service provider in Orange County willing to serve these people who have, for the most part, curable and preventable conditions. PSHC never anticipated being the only provider and the patient caseload has skyrocketed in the past few years. We have been working tirelessly to respond to the growing need and are now preparing for the influx that will occur once the Affordable Care Act is implemented in 2014. In 2012, PSHC served more than 11,183 patients (6,271 low-income patients) and provided nearly 80,000 total patient appointments. Approximately 60% of our work is dedicated to low-income patients all of whom are uninsured or underinsured. The organization also distributes more than 700 free or reduced cost hearing aids to this population.

Target demographics: the speech and hearing impaired community

Direct beneficiaries per year: nearly 80,000 patient appointments

Geographic areas served: Orange County

Programs: • Individual and Group Speech Therapy • Craniofacial Clinic in partnership with CHOC Children’s • Stuttering and Fluency Treatment • Occupational Therapy • Social Skills Program for Pragmatic Language Disorders • Hearing Screenings, Tests, and Evaluations • Hearing Aid Evaluation and Fitting • Providence Therapeutic Preschool • Early Intervention Group Therapy • Sedated ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response) testing in collaboration with CHOC Children’s • Orange County Fall Prevention and Balance Center • Tinnitus Treatment Program • Evaluations and Treatment for Auditory Processing Disorder