Ottawa Hospital to close its Stuttering Treatment Clinic after 43 Years

In its recent round of funding cuts Dr. Jack Kitts, CEO of the Ottawa Hospital, announced that the Stuttering Treatment Clinic will close at the end of October 2015.

Reasons given by the Hospital for closing the clinic are: stuttering is not an illness requiring medical expertise, and the Hospital’s mandate is to care for Eastern Ontario’s “sickest” individuals and to not fund services that can be provided in the community.

Members of the Ottawa Association of People Who Stutter (OAPWS) have written to Dr. Kitts requesting a meeting with either him or one of his senior staff to discuss the reasons behind the closure and to suggest a delay in the closing date.

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New Franky Banky comic

FrankyBankyDaniele Rossi is a Toronto-based cartoonist, author, and digital communicator. He is well known for his Stuttering is Cool podcast and his role as a co-founder of Stutter Social. Daniele's first book, Stuttering is Cool, A Guide to Stuttering in a Fast-Talking World, quickly became a favourite book for many people who stutter, and is even a required textbook in the speech pathology department at Appalachian State University. 

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The McGuire Program comes to Toronto

mcguire logoThe McGuire Programme, a stuttering treatment program for adults who stutter, is being offered in Canada for the first time. Created by David MacGuire twenty years ago, it is popular in Europe, and most recently the British singer Gareth Gates praised the course for helping alleviate his stuttering. The first Canadian course will take place in Toronto from September 23-26, 2015.

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Atlantic Magazine article about stuttering acceptance

acceptaneThe American magazine the Atlantic has published an article about people who stutter. It centres on the National Stuttering Association (NSA) conferences, and how some people who stutter have found relief through an unusual approach, namely acceptance of their stuttering as simply the way that they talk. This often comes after years of struggling with disappointment in traditional therapy, which doesn't always result in long-term improvement. The NSA conferences offer another approach – to stop fighting it. Read the whole article here.

The 2015 CSA event featuring Katherine Preston

Katherine PrestonThis October, the Canadian Stuttering Association will host an event in Toronto for people whose lives are affected by stuttering. Like our successful mini-conference last year, this will be a special occasion to get together with people who stutter, their families and friends, students and speech-language pathologists.

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