“Forgotten”: Sudden service closure leaves families waiting

Engage Therapy, which provided allied health services to children and adults, made the announcement on Wednesday. “We are no longer able to provide a therapy service for the foreseeable future,” The centre said on its Facebook page.“There are a number of complex circumstances that have lead to this difficult decision and we do not underestimate the effect this will have on our community, especially our clients. Mother of two Kylie Wells said days before the announcement, her seven year old daughter Isla was supposed to see a specialist.“We was supposed to have a speech appointment, a home visit, and nobody showed,” Ms Wells said. “The reason I got was ‘sorry, we’ve had a big meeting and all appointments were cancelled.“The next day I saw the Facebook post, I was dumbfounded.”Now Isla is without a speech therapist, physiotherapist and dietitian. “Isla has a rare genetic syndrome called Apert syndrome,” Ms Wells said. “The bones in her body were fused together before birth, her hands were fused together, her feet were fused together.“One of the major things is she doesn’t eat enough, the only thing maintaining her weight is liquid diet of up and gos.”Ms Wells said she and other parents of children with special needs will be forced to wait months to secure new specialists. “The waitlists are long,” she said. “We actually had been waiting for a new physio for 18 months, we were appointed one but now Engage was closed and I have to find another.Ms Wells said learning about the closure through Facebook was inappropriate. “We’ve got to fight as it is to get the things for our kiddies, then to have a company just up and close like that, without even a warning, it’s almost like as a whole, the special needs kids in Tassie have been forgotten, that’s what it feels like,” she said.The Mercury reached out to Engage Therapy owner, Natasha MacKinnon for comment and received an automated email for participants. “There has been an accumulation of events, a combination of sudden staff losses with limited notice in some cases,” Ms MacKinnon said. “We have also had an ex-employee under investigation and for legal reasons, I cannot say anything further, apart from those directly affected. “Recruitment of allied health is difficult and given the decline in my own health, we had to make a 24hr decision.”Ms Mackinnon said the Facebook post going up first was an error. “That was a miscommunication by myself I now realise, due to my level of distress on the day,” Ms Mackinnon said.“It was meant to be that the individual email went out to all clients and stakeholders first.”She said the decision to close was her last and only option. “I have built Engage Therapy for the last 6 years to serve our community and we are all incredibly distressed by the situation,” Ms MacKinnon said. judy.augustine@news.com.auTwitter follow JudyAugustine

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February 26, 2022 at 12:30AM
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Engage Therapy, which provided allied health services to children and adults, made the announcement on Wednesday. “We are no longer able to provide a therapy service for the foreseeable future,” The centre said on its Facebook page.“There are a number of complex circumstances that have lead to this difficult decision and we do not underestimate the effect this will have on our community, especially our clients. Mother of two Kylie Wells said days before the announcement, her seven year old daughter Isla was supposed to see a specialist.“We was supposed to have a speech appointment, a home visit, and nobody showed,” Ms Wells said. “The reason I got was ‘sorry, we’ve had a big meeting and all appointments were cancelled.“The next day I saw the Facebook post, I was dumbfounded.”Now Isla is without a speech therapist, physiotherapist and dietitian. “Isla has a rare genetic syndrome called Apert syndrome,” Ms Wells said. “The bones in her body were fused together before birth, her hands were fused together, her feet were fused together.“One of the major things is she doesn’t eat enough, the only thing maintaining her weight is liquid diet of up and gos.”Ms Wells said she and other parents of children with special needs will be forced to wait months to secure new specialists. “The waitlists are long,” she said. “We actually had been waiting for a new physio for 18 months, we were appointed one but now Engage was closed and I have to find another.Ms Wells said learning about the closure through Facebook was inappropriate. “We’ve got to fight as it is to get the things for our kiddies, then to have a company just up and close like that, without even a warning, it’s almost like as a whole, the special needs kids in Tassie have been forgotten, that’s what it feels like,” she said.The Mercury reached out to Engage Therapy owner, Natasha MacKinnon for comment and received an automated email for participants. “There has been an accumulation of events, a combination of sudden staff losses with limited notice in some cases,” Ms MacKinnon said. “We have also had an ex-employee under investigation and for legal reasons, I cannot say anything further, apart from those directly affected. “Recruitment of allied health is difficult and given the decline in my own health, we had to make a 24hr decision.”Ms Mackinnon said the Facebook post going up first was an error. “That was a miscommunication by myself I now realise, due to my level of distress on the day,” Ms Mackinnon said.“It was meant to be that the individual email went out to all clients and stakeholders first.”She said the decision to close was her last and only option. “I have built Engage Therapy for the last 6 years to serve our community and we are all incredibly distressed by the situation,” Ms MacKinnon said. judy.augustine@news.com.auTwitter follow JudyAugustine