Abstract
Speech and language therapy is a small profession. It only reached its golden jubilee year in 1995 and misleadingly, remains for many highly associated with the elocution training in which the profession had its genesis. In the last few years the greatest developments have been in the area of cognitive neuropsychological and functional (pragmatic) models for the assessment and management of language and communication. It is the premise of this article that speech and language therapists are likely to prove flexible and valuable members of the multidisciplinary team, with the ability to contribute a further dimension to care planning – that of specific clinical input to the wide range of language, speech and communication impairments associated with the major mental illnesses (Gravell & France, 1991).
Highlights
In the UK, speech and language therapy in psychiatry has been developing over the past 15 years
In total there are about 40 speech and language therapists working in various branches of psychiatry and a signifi cantly higher number with the elderly with mental health problems
The National Psychiatry Special Interest Group was set up 15 years ago Psychiatric Bulletin (1996), 20, 524-526
Summary
Speech and language therapy is a small profession. It only reached its golden jubilee year in 1995 and misleadingly, remains for many highly associated with the elocution training in which the profession had its genesis. In the last few years the greatest developments have been in the area of cognitive neuropsychological and functional (pragmatic) models for the assessment and management of language and communication It is the premise of this article that speech and language therapists are likely to prove flexible and valuable members of the multidisciplinary team, with the ability to contribute a further dimension to care planning - that of specific clinical input to the wide range of language, speech and communication impairments associated with the major mental illnesses Part of speech and language therapy training will, unsurprisingly, be focused at enabling therapists to leam the arts of good language therapy, those of reflecting back, judging correct level of input and eliciting and maximising output. These elements are central to the cognitivebehavioural models of management
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