Journal Reviews
How much does it cost to simulate speech and language therapy placements?
The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists report that 20% of speech and language therapy positions are unfilled in the UK. Consequently, there is an urgent need to offer as many training courses as possible to fill these gaps....
The nice therapist effect: does the therapeutic relationship matter?
Quality of relationships is considered a core component of all speech and language therapy work, yet there is little agreement of what constitutes a therapeutic relationship. This study describes a scoping review to map existing evidence that has investigated this...
Going online with dysphagia practice: potential for innovation post pandemic
Telepractice is perhaps the most widespread service innovation to have received such rapid uptake across health systems globally. Disciplines that started to adopt telehealth prior to the pandemic found themselves at the forefront of a seismic shift to delivering healthcare...
Risky behaviour: do care homes follow dysphagia recommendations?
A huge proportion of elderly people living in residential care homes will develop dysphagia. In Australia this is estimated at close to two thirds of all residents. It is the role of the speech and language therapist to make recommendations...
The impact of bilateral implantation on language outcomes
An American study retrospectively looked at the language outcomes of 204 children implanted either bilaterally, sequentially or unilaterally. All children received their first implant before the age of three years, and language measures were collected when the children were aged...
Better or barrier: what do healthcare professionals think about teletherapy?
Most healthcare professionals will have had to dabble in using some kind of telehealth platform over the last 18 months or so. And most of us will have had some reservations, or have colleagues who just weren’t sure about Zoom,...
Till death do us part: the role of the speech and language therapists in palliative care
Increasingly, speech and language therapists are being involved in end-of-life and palliative care. This study reports on a three-phase project to explore this in the context of the Australian healthcare system. In phase one, the authors described a scoping review...
Bringing aged care back
Worldwide, our older population is increasing, and thus a need for the provision of care to older people is also increasing. Aged care may be informal, provided by unpaid carers; or formal, provided or subsidised by government or other organisations....
Swallowing it whole: the physical and psychological consequences of dysphagia
Living with dysphagia in the real world can be extremely challenging, both practically and psychologically. Long-term changes in taste due to chemo-radiation treatment for head and neck cancer, fatigue due to Parkinson’s disease, and physically impaired structures due to stroke...
Pretend placements: simulation is as good as the real thing
Clinical placements are now, more than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, a huge time and personnel commitment. Recently, allied health students have had huge changes to their placements, often undertaking them entirely remotely. This article describes a novel method of...
How long is too long? Waiting times for speech and language therapy
Waiting lists are a reality of clinical practice, and many health and social care professionals become used to having to cope with this. The authors of this paper addressed this issue by examining written submissions to the 2014 Senate Inquiry...
Cochlear implant use in young children
There are clear and well-established links between those identified and fitted with amplification early and good spoken language outcomes, but how much does the time an appropriately fitted hearing instrument is used each day contribute to this? During the first...
