Speech and Language Therapy is a key part of helping our service users live full, rich, independent lives. At Stewarts Care we have a highly experienced team of Speech and Language Therapists that support our service users from infants to adults across all of our services and facilities.

Beth Milofsky, who works on the Speech and Language Therapy team, qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist in the summer of 2016. While attending Trinity College, she spent her summers volunteering with Enable Ireland but when she graduated, her job search led her to Stewarts Care. While doing research for her interview, she fell in love with the mission statement and ethos at Stewarts Care.

She also discovered a quote from a family testimonial on the Stewarts Care website that really resonated with her. It read: “Before Stewarts Care, I had a brother with an intellectual disability. Now, he’s a man with a life.”

Another big reason Beth was drawn to Stewarts Care was the Service User Councils. There are five democratically elected councils made up of Service Users from each of the main centres. Nominated candidates run campaigns to be elected by their fellow Service Users and the Councils meet once a month to discuss how to make Stewarts Care a better place for everyone. Since joining Stewarts Care, Beth has helped manage and organise the Community Service User Council, only recently handing the reigns over to another member of the team there.

Beth primarily works with children and is part of the early intervention team which supports Service Users from birth to school-going age. This team offers an all-in-one, holistic service that benefits not only Service Users but their families as well. It’s a collaborative effort where social workers, psychologists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists all contribute to the early development of our youngest, most vulnerable Service Users.

Beth also loves that at Stewarts Care, the whole family becomes the Service User, not just the family member with an intellectual disability. Families and the people she meets everyday are what she loves about working at Stewarts Care and she says, “It’s a real privilege to be part of someone else’s life”. For Beth, coming to work is a joy, she thinks of Stewarts Care as one big community and she misses it when she’s away. The connections she’s built with Service Users and their families is what keeps bringing her back every day.

Giving a voice to the Service Users means a lot to Beth. At Stewarts Care, she’s done this in many more ways than one.

Beth recently played a key role in establishing SWAN Ireland. SWAN stands for Syndromes Without A Name and the organisation works to connect and support families whose children don’t have a clear, specific diagnosis. SWAN Ireland had its first meeting in July 2019 where 6 families signed up to become members. Today SWAN Ireland has over 54 members and works to spread awareness through similar organisations and health services. To find out more, you can contact Beth at syndromeswithoutanameireland@gmail.com