Sir, - I read, with a strong sense of familiarity, the report in your edition of September 7th outlining the shortage of speech and language therapists in Co Waterford. Unfortunately, this situation is far from unique.
I was also glad to see speech and language therapy making front-page news in the same edition of your paper. In the picture of Declan Friel and Sir Jimmy Saville, Sir Jimmy is pointing to Declan's communication chart. Declan's speech and language therapist, in co-operation with Declan himself, his family and other staff, designed this chart. If we can use the expression on Declan's face as a measurement, the communication is successful.
These two "stories" serve to highlight the value of the work of a speech and language therapist and the challenges facing the profession in Ireland today.
As stated in the recently-published Bacon Report on Manpower Shortages in Certain Professional Therapies (The Irish Times, July 26th) it will require a four-fold increase in the number of speech and language therapists if adequate services are to be provided. It is envisaged, through various measures, that this figure will be arrived at in the year 2015.
Fourteen years is a long time to have to wait for an adequate service, for both our clients and their families, and for the over-stretched therapists currently providing a service to children and adults.
However, some additional interim measures are being proposed, such as overseas recruitment, a review of working conditions and benchmarking. The Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists (IASLT) is working closely with the Department of Health and Children and our union, IMPACT, to ensure the situation is addressed urgently. - Yours, etc.,
Aisling Becton, Chairperson, Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists, Gardiner Place, Dublin 1.