Published: November 07, 2009 11:23 pm         

Hedges provides important services

The days of banging pots and pans to make sure your baby is hearing are over.

“We have a little more refined method to check hearing,” Carmen Ball, executive director of Hedges Regional Speech & Hearing Center, said with a smile.

The facility provides hearing and speech services to residents of all ages, she said. Hedges mainly serves Garfield County but has had clients from as far as the panhandle.

The center offers state-of-the-art audiology services, including a screening device for infants that determines whether they are hearing properly. Hos-pitals often refer newborns to Hedges if they see a problem, Ball said.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, she said, Hedges serves senior citizens with hearing tests and devices.

Hedges also provides speech services, mainly to children. While the state provides therapy through SoonerStart, an early intervention program, and the school system, Hedges often supplements those services in severe cases or takes over when the problem may not be severe enough to qualify for the state programs, Ball said. Therapists work closely with the school districts to provide seamless services.

A private, non-profit organization, Hedges receives funding as one of United Way’s 15 member service agencies.

“I know there are people we tell our story to that we’d never reach if we were not a United Way agency,” Ball said.

Funding from United Way goes heavily toward scholarships to help those in need receive services through Hedges.

“It keeps the cost lower,” she said.

Another benefit of being a United Way agency is the scrutiny from the agency that makes sure its benefactors are not “silly with their money.”

Hedges boasts five speech therapists and one audiologist, all of whom are certified through American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and licensed through the state.