Providence Speech and Hearing Center (PSHC) is the leading service provider to those with speech and hearing impairments in Orange County, CA, and beyond. Since 1965, this regionally renowned non-profit has assisted hundreds of thousands of individuals and families through expert professionals, advanced technology, and caring support in alignment with its mission: “Enriching Life through the Gifts of Speech and Hearing.”
Founded by Dr. Margaret Anne Inman (1917–2008), a pioneering speech pathologist from Indiana, PSHC was developed to assist speech-delayed children in need. By 1981, the current six-story Providence medical building began construction, with PSHC corporate facilities occupying the first floor upon its completion in 1982.
Today, the Center offers a comprehensive range of services for both children and adults in eight locations in Orange and Los Angeles counties with its staff of 180 professionals, often in collaboration with hospitals and other community partners:
- Complete pediatric audiology evaluations and treatment for children
- Adult audiology services through its Word & Brown Hearing Center
- Offsite speech and hearing testing in two Orange County school districts
- Hearing aid evaluation, testing and sales
- The Orange County Fall Prevention and Balance Center™
- Group and individual speech therapy for children and adults
- Pediatric Occupational Therapy
- Social Skills program for pragmatic language disorders
- Providence Therapeutic Preschool for both special needs and typically developing children
- The Orange County Cochlear Implant Institute™
- Community outreach, education and seminars
Under the direction of immediate past Chief Executive Officer Linda Smith, PSHC grew exponentially over the last decade. Annual patient appointments increased by 552 percent in 2008 when she took office, to more than 137,000 when she retired in 2017. Patients came from 25 counties throughout California and five surrounding states.
That period of rapid growth included the establishment of the Word & Brown Hearing Center and additional satellite locations, as well as the acquisition of four existing speech center offices, several of which quickly required relocation to larger spaces due to the widespread excellent reputation of PSHC and increasing demand for its services.
More recently, in 2015, Smith spearheaded the establishment of two new initiatives to fill additional critical needs in the community:
The Orange County Fall Prevention and Balance Center™ (OCFPBC) serves those with balance and dizziness issues from its two Orange and Newport Beach locations. Research has shown that falls are the leading cause of injury and accidental death for people over 65. This center provides effective treatment for a range of balance issues, including audiology services and physical therapy, in service to the area’s large senior community.
The Orange County Cochlear Implant Institute™ (OCCII) is the first comprehensive cochlear implant center in Orange County, specializing in pediatrics, but also providing infants through adults with candidate assessments; post-procedure implant mapping, speech and language therapy, and other necessary wrap-around services. Implant surgeries are performed in partnership with CHOC (Children’s Hospital of Orange County) and the University of California Irvine Medical Center.
Explains OCCII coordinator Yareiry Alba, “As the Patient Navigator for our cochlear implant (CI) families, it is my responsibility to work with our multi-disciplinary team of professionals to develop and offer as many resources as possible. In the few years since the Orange County Cochlear Implant Institute opened, we have already assisted hundreds of families and are eager to help even more. We are in the midst of developing a support group and ongoing educational seminars for all CI families in Orange County starting this fall.”
A CI community picnic with food, games, and other activities is planned for Saturday, August 25, 2018 in Garden Grove, CA. (To receive notifications about this social event, upcoming seminars, and the Orange County Cochlear Implant support group, contact yalba@pshc.org)
PSHC is committed to serving children, adults, seniors, veterans and families of all backgrounds and multiple languages, whether they have private insurance or limited means; no one is ever turned away, regardless of their ability to pay. In fact, PSHC is one of the very few hearing centers in California that subsidizes hearing aids for low-income patients. Grants, scholarships, and financing options are offered for patients in need. In 2017, Providence granted 193 hearing aid units and provided more than $1 million dollars in patient care from fundraising.
Funding sources for the non-profit Center range from corporate and individual donors to foundations and grants to a pair of successful annual fundraising events: a golf tournament in June and a formal Gala in November.
“Providence Speech and Hearing Center is poised to continue its rapid growth and tremendous community impact across Southern California,” says current CEO Andrew Simone. “There is a serious and significant systematic healthcare coverage gap in both audiology, primarily hearing aids, and speech therapy that we can fill unlike anyone else as a Center of Excellence and a non-profit organization.”
The Providence Speech and Hearing Center corporate office is at 1301 Providence Ave, Orange, CA 92868, with additional locations in Cerritos, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Mission Viejo, and Newport Beach. Not all services are provided at each office. General info: 855-901-PSHC; appointments: 714-923-1521. For more information, visit: www.pshc.org.
This article originally appeared in The Hearing Loss Californian, Summer 2018.
