Jan 18, 2024 at 5:00 am
The demand for speech therapy continues to increase, but the shortage of speech therapists is growing, concludes the Nivel health institute. As a result, there are long waiting lists and distressing cases of children who are not helped, for example with their language development disorder.
In brief
- There is a growing shortage of speech therapists due to increasing demand, partly due to an aging population and the Appropriate Education Act.
- Primary care is experiencing more pressure; low wages and high workload discourage graduates from working in this field.
- Due to the shortage, waiting lists are growing and children with language development disorders are falling further behind.
More and more people are requesting speech therapy. This is partly due to the aging population in our country, the organization of healthcare and the law on appropriate education, Marliek Schulte, policy advisor at the Dutch Association for Speech Therapy and Phoniatrics (NVLF), told NU.nl.
“In our country, people are getting older, but they are also increasingly living at home,” says Schulte. They can call on primary care. “For example, if the elderly suffer a brain haemorrhage and develop aphasia, they often also need speech therapy care. For example, people who live in a nursing home do not end up in primary care, but people who live at home do.”
With the increasing demand, the problem lies in primary care. “More and more people are being sent there, while the shortage of speech therapists is growing and the workload is extremely high.” In addition, children are better screened, which means that more children with a language development disorder are identified.
“The fact that speech therapy is becoming busier is also due to the Appropriate Education Act. As a result, fewer children are being sent to special education,” Schulte explains. Speech therapists are employed in special (primary) education, but not in regular education. If children there need speech therapy, they end up in primary care.
What is primary care?
Primary care is care provided by general practitioners, pharmacists, speech therapists, district nurses and midwives, among others. These professionals are often the first point of contact and therefore an important link in the quality of care. But primary care is under pressure due to, among other things, the increasing and more complex demand for care and staff shortages in healthcare.
Children with language development disorder lag further behind
Currently, around 550 people per year start training in speech therapy. But to meet demand, the intake must be increased to 700 new students. According to Nivel’s calculations, this is not feasible. “The number of students is expected to decrease by 19 percent,” the organization writes.
According to Schulte, this decline fits in with a national trend. “Care training courses are less in demand across the country,” she says. Many people who start studying speech therapy are “very excited” but do not want to work in primary care. According to Schulte, that is the problem.
“The employment conditions must be improved. Now the influx of speech therapists in primary care is really too small.” The NVLF is therefore concerned about both employees and patients.
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Schulte: “There are long waiting lists for patients. In Amsterdam they are up to a year and in other places several months.” Acute cases do receive immediate care, but that means others have to wait longer. “That is distressing when it comes to children with delays in language development, for example. In those cases, it is crucial to start speech therapy as early as possible.”
Yet the healthcare itself is well organized, but the problem lies in the financing of primary care, Schulte believes. The wages of primary care are so low that speech therapists do not want to work there. “But the shortage is so great that we have to implement additional plans. Think of e-health where people have to do assignments at home, or online appointments so that the speech therapist does not have to visit the patient.” In many cases, according to Schulte, this is not possible. “But something has to be done, because we won’t make it this way.”
How can we solve the shortage of speech therapists?
Nivel has devised a number of measures that can help limit the shortage of speech therapists. But the organization emphasizes that these ideas cannot completely solve the problem.
- Maintain the training intake as much as possible.
- Encourage speech therapists to work more hours. Many work part-time.
- Increasing the efficiency of the work process by reducing administrative tasks and using new treatment methods.
- Improve employment conditions for speech therapists.
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2024-01-18 04:00:48
#Shortage #speech #therapists #growing #Children #language #disorders #falling #Domestic
