Speech and Language Therapy

K-Net Telehealth Special Projects Update: Speech-Language Therapy via Telehealth

            A proposal is being put together to secure funding for speech and language therapy to be provided via K-Net telehealth to communities in the Sioux Lookout Zone of the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch. A needs assessment plan is being developed so as to collect primary and secondary data to determine the need for this service and the consequences of it’s absence. The primary data is proposed to be collected through interviews with speech-language therapists, potential and current speech and language patients, significant others of the potential and current patients, administrators of local schools, and health administrators in the target communities.

            Secondary data has been collected linking speech and language problems to low socio-economic status, poor academic performance, juvenile delinquency, anxiety disorders, antisocial personality disorder, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, co-morbidity between depression and drug abuse, and co-morbidity between antisocial behaviour and substance use disorder.

            Economic costs to society as a result of non-treatment of speech and language disorders based on the correlations between morbidity and speech-language impairments found in the research will be calculated.

Submitted by Alex Moreno