TheraCare Outpatient Services, LLC: Local Outlet Expands Offerings for Niche Therapy Services and Equipment

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Posted online February 22, 2019 | 10:32 am

TheraCare Outpatient Services is expanding its offerings by opening a sister company, TheraPlay, that will focus on pediatric durable medical equipment, therapy tools and supplies, and sensory products.

Owner and Speech/Language Pathologist Melanie Stinnett says she saw a need that wasn’t being met and opening TheraPlay was a logical step. “We were finding things that our therapists were recommending were hard to find locally,” says Stinnett. “Families were resorting to paying high shipping for things online.”

Having a local spot where families can go and let their child look at and touch things is a unique offering for speech and occupational therapy clinics according to Stinnett. “Many times families of children with special needs are overwhelmed with the process of going to therapies and needing special devices,” says Stinnett. “TheraPlay is a place where they can walk in and find what their therapist has recommended.”

TheraCare has also expanded its services and in addition to providing speech, occupational, and music therapy, will now provide physical therapy as well. “Physical therapy resources for children can be difficult to find,” says Stinnett.

Among TheraCare’s unique offerings are therapists who specialize in helping babies and young children with chewing and swallowing difficulties. “If your child is having feeding and swallowing difficulties, you could end up in the hospital with life threatening challenges so those services are really important,” says Stinnett.

TheraCare is also the only Medicaid approved site in southwest Missouri that provides assistive communication device evaluations for children and adults with autism, traumatic brain injury, or stroke who are minimally or non-verbal. “We have a team that consists of not only our speech therapists but an occupational therapist who’s very knowledgeable in the assistive tech side,” says Stinnett. “So if a person needs a device but is in a wheelchair, we can figure out how to mount that device in an appropriate way. They work really well as a team together.”

Starting this year, the company will offer a discounted rate for its summer intensive services for families whose insurance doesn’t cover those programs. “In the past we’ve seen children who had maybe more mild needs for therapy but who are still having to be pulled out of class and receive therapies at school,” says Stinnett.

“With our intensive therapy, we’ve been able to see these children improve so much that they’re completely dismissed from services so when they return back to school they don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

“We’re all about building up their confidence level and their quality of life,” says Stinnett.