Taking Our Skills Abroad
Though the wait times and shortage of practitioners in Canadian speech-language pathology can be frustrating to the public, we are fortunate that services are available to support persons with communication and swallowing disorders. There are places in the world where SLPs, audiologists, and similar practitioners are largely unheard of.
Pediastaff.com recently posted a story about an organisation that went to Zambia in 2007 to create programs and train practitioners to help children with communication disorders. When this organisation — Connective Link Amongst Special Needs Programs (CLASP) International — arrived, there “was one certified Sp
eech-Language Pathologist, one Audiologist and no NICU nurses in the entire country of Zambia.”
“By building graduate programs and certifying SLP as a profession with the government we are creating a profession, providing education, and jobs, which is a sustainable solution for the children of Africa. Now they can see someone who can assess, diagnose, and help them live full lives. Children who are so severely malnourished because their disability inhibits them from eating and their parents do not know how to feed them.”
To read read more of the story, click here.
To learn more about CLASP and its current activities, visit http://claspinternational.org/.
-LP
Image source: CLASP Media Gallery
