One of the most frequent questions we get from families is: How long is your waitlist?
It is very challenging to put an estimate on our waitlist because it is based on so many factors. In this blog, we are sharing some of these factors with you so that you can better understand why you may wait to get started with our team.
1. Family’s availability and flexibility- in general, the more flexibility a family has with the day and time of their weekly appointment, the quicker we can get you supported. Generally, families who are open to services at any time of day (including during the school day) are able to be scheduled in much sooner than those looking for a specific day of the week, time of day, or evening appointments.
2. Where a family lives- our wait lists for the cities and towns we service vary in length and as such, families can wait different amounts of time based on where they live.
3. When our team members provide services in your area- since we provide services in the comfort of your home (as well as online), we have to consider driving time when scheduling our clients. As such, we often have certain times of day and days of the week that our team is in your neighbourhood.
4. What concerns you have about your child- our team members support a variety of goals for children, but we always strive to ensure that the speech-language pathologist you are working with can support your family well.
5. Meaningful, long-term support. Lastly, but possibly most importantly, is that many of the families who are supported by our team are supported over long periods of time (months to years). This means we have fewer appointment times come available on a regular basis. We understand this can mean waiting a longer period of time to get started but once you are supported by our team, you can feel reassured that you are offered the opportunity for continuous, meaningful support.
All in all, it’s not as simple as saying there are a certain number of families on the wait list ahead of your child when you refer them to our team. We strive to support families as soon as possible so we ask about scheduling flexibility, your family’s home address and more on our referral form which you can find here. You are always more than welcome to put your child on waitlists for multiple private practices to see where you may begin services soonest.
Learn more about the locations we service and how we support kids here.