ASHA's Position on Speech Therapy Telepractice.
The challenges facing telepractice in speech-language pathology and the future directions for this field are discussed. Telepractice is an emerging area of service delivery in speech-language pathology that is likely to become an integral part of mainstream practice in the future.
Telepractice may be used to overcome barriers of access to services caused by distance, unavailability of specialists and, or subspecialists, and impaired mobility” (ASHA, Speech-Language Pathologists Providing Clinical Services via Telepractice: Position Statement (Position Statement), 2005).
Speech Pathology Australia has developed this position statement on telepractice. This position statement has been produced to assist speech pathologists considering implementing telepractice in the Australian context. It may also be of use when lobbying for new service delivery models to meet increasing demand for speech pathology services.
Telepractice may be used to overcome barriers of access to services caused by distance, unavailability of specialists and, or subspecialists, and impaired mobility” (ASHA, Speech-Language Pathologists Providing Clinical Services via Telepractice: Position Statement (Position Statement), 2005). ASHA has also added telepractice to its directory.
Guidance for new and experienced telepractitioners is gleaned from the Code of Ethics of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), ASHA position statements and other documents on telepractice, and other health-care disciplines (e.g., psychology and medicine).
Step One: Investigate. A successful telepractice program begins with investigation and information gathering. Essential ASHA documents to read include Speech-Language Pathologists Providing Clinical Services Via Telepractice: Position Statement (ASHA, 2005b),Speech-Language Pathologists Providing Clinical Services Via Telepractice: Technical Report (ASHA, 2005c), Knowledge and Skills Needed by.
SPA’s Position Statement: Telepractice in Speech Pathology contains a review of current evidence. Members may also perform a search such as “telepractice” or “telehealth” on SpeechBITE. The evidence for some areas of practice suggest that benefit is contingent on related factors, such as having a trained support person or other health.