In April, The New England Center for Children® (NECC®) opened the Allied Health Clinic in Dubai. Located in Dubai Healthcare City, the Allied Health Clinic is a pediatric specialty clinic that provides one-on-one or group occupational therapy (OT) and speech and language therapy (SpL) across a variety of diagnoses and severity levels.
“The idea for the Allied Health Clinic came about as there was a recognized need across the community for more specific services, such as occupational therapy and speech and language therapy,” said Tina Younes, SLPD, CCC-SLP, who has worked as a speech and language therapist at the NECC Clinic in Dubai and now oversees the Allied Health Clinic. “We heard from families and practitioners in the area about how difficult it is to find a qualified speech and language therapists (SLP) or occupational therapists (OT) for their children who have fewer comprehensive needs than those we serve with autism at our NECC Clinic in Dubai.”
According to Younes, the Allied Health Clinic differs from the other NECC clinics in that it functions as an outpatient therapy center providing specific, direct services to clients of all ages and disabilities and disorders in 30 to 60 minute sessions, versus the comprehensive treatment plans developed for children with autism that are provided at NECC’s other clinics.
“Our team of SLPs and OTs are quite passionate about working across disorders and disabilities and wanted to ensure this passion was shared with those in need,” said Younes. “We hope to create a space for children to strengthen their areas of need and to be a clinic in which practitioners and families feel comfortable seeking services.”
For more than 15 years, NECC has been providing consulting services to children and adults in countries in and around the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC). NECC’s Global Consulting has served more than 300 students through its consultative services and its work in clinics in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Qatar. These comprehensive services are grounded in more than 48 years of education, curriculum development, and research developed at NECC in Southborough, MA, a world leader in autism education and research.
“Our vision is to continue to expand services throughout the Middle East region” shared Kristin Buchanan, MSEd, BCBA, executive director of Gulf Consulting at NECC. “The opening of the Allied Health Clinic is just another step toward providing much-needed services to children in these communities.”
The Allied Health Clinic’s master’s degree-level SLPs and OTs address a number of disorders including apraxia and dyslexia, executive functioning disorders, expressive language delays and disorders, feeding disorders, fine motor disorders or delays, gross motor disorders or delays, hearing impairments, oral motor disorders, pragmatic disorders, receptive language delays and disorders, sensory disorders, speech sound disorders, strength and mobility, stuttering and fluency, visual-perceptual motor disorders or delays, written language disorders, and more.
For more information, contact [email protected].
