Speech Pathology Services in Victoria for People with a Severe Communication Impairment

There are approximately 6000 people in Victoria with a severe communication impairment. This paper presents the results of a state-wide survey conducted to provide information on speech pathology services to these individuals. The data were gathered from service providers from a cross-section of facilities. The results showed that severe communication impairment is an under-resourced and under-serviced area. The availability of speech pathology services was limited. Where speech pathologists offered a service to non-speaking clients, a long-term time commitment was involved and clients predominantly attended for two years or more. Time and resource constraints limited the effective provision of services. There is a limited number of speech pathologists employed in servicing severely communicatively impaired people, and a lack of knowledge about non-speech communication among the service providers. Direct speech pathology intervention alone cannot meet the diverse needs of this large population. Various op...