Any Speech therapists on here? Thinking of retraining

[DanceMonkey19]

Just wondering if I could be nosy about the job. Best/worst bits? Would you recommend?

Hopeful bump!

Nothing useful to add but watching with interest!

I am😁 but not living in the UK atm so had to stop a few years ago.
I worked with children, but you would also have the choice of working with adults.
Best things:
The kids and the families, building relationships with them and for some it was a real journey
It's a rewarding job where you can see the results of your work
A lot of variety, every day was different and could range from a 2yo who isn't speaking yet to a 16yo with autism
I liked the problem solving - assessing, diagnosing, making a plan and doing it
I did a lot of training for parents/teachers/nursery staff and liked working with other professionals to improve things for the kids
Always new things to learn

Worst:
Too many kids to see and stressful managing waiting lists
A lot of paperwork
Managing parent's expectations of what can be done
Although I said I liked working with other professionals and parents, sometimes this was also the most difficult part of the job
Emotionally draining - supporting parents through autism diagnosis for their child for example.

I did the job for 10 years and loved it. Do lots of research about it, and check the job prospects in your area. Wouldd also be worth contacting your local speech therapy dept. to see if you could do some work shadowing (not always possible cause of confidentiality issues) but you might be able to meet with someone to talk about their job.
I'm happy to answer any questions for you if I can.

We have a SLT for globally delayed, non verbal, disabled DC3.

She is awesome. Truly invested, always comes back to us quickly, always has suggestions / plans. If she does this with all her patients (as I am sure she does) she is probably frazzled most of the time.

It's a very worthwhile job from my perspective 👍

Me! Been working for the NHS for nearly 20 years with 0-18 year olds. I love the job but hate working for the NHS. Targets, cuts, being told what you can and can't treat, stress, no sickness/maternity cover so you all end up stretching yourselves if someone goes off. I'm leaving this year and have luckily secured independent work that means I keep getting to do the job I love to the standard I want to do it.

The course is competitive and hard going so you have to be sure you really want to do it but it is fascinating and and so many aspects to the role and areas to progress to. There are new grad jobs outside the nhs. I am sad to be leaving be leaving but my mental health can no longer take the battering it's been getting by having an extremely high workload and no support.

SuziGeo and flamingoshoes thank you so much for your replies. Is there much any scope for part time roles?

crunchymum is your SLT private or NHS? It's a delay in my own child that's prompted my interest, as NHS provision seems a bit patchy, whereas I would like weekly sessions. I think I would like to work privately if I do decide to pursue it

Yes there is definitely not à problem with part time roles where I am.

I agree, part-time positions are common.

Our NHS SLTs won’t treat anyone who has another need along side, e.g global delay or autism. They will only offer advice.

I am a speech Pathologist in Australia. I have my own business and picking my own hours is wonderful. I absolutely love my job and find it so rewarding. I mainly work with early intervention, speech, language and stuttering . There is a big scope of practice. One friend works with people following tramatic brain injury, another with adults post stroke and another in schools doing literacy. I am about to do a post grad in Autism diagnosis (as my eldest daughter has asd and it is a passion of mine).
The uni course isn't easy and is quite full on but si rewarding

The profession is dominated by women so there are lots of part time roles available.

However.....

The job landscape is changing quite a bit with more and more work being in the private sector now. Schools and LAs can buy in therapy from outside of the NHS and as the private companies can undercut them, the NHS is losing lots of contacts. The private companies can undercut because they pay their staff less (around 5k less in London as they don't pay London weighting unlike the NHS) and often don't pay sick pay by making their employees self-employed contractors (who have to sign contracts containing clauses prohibiting them from doing outside work so not self employed at all).

That's interesting misselpheba. Seems like every career is on a race to the bottom

A couple of you have mentioned the course being hard going - which aspects did you find difficult?

Thanks again for replies, this is all really useful

In terms of the course (it was many years ago I did it) you have to study a range of subjects in depth, there were heaps of assignments, essays and exams running alongside clinical placements where you also had to meet specific standards, do planning and take on increasing responsibility. Our clinical placements were often miles away so involved a lot of travel as well.

We had people on the course who passed the academic side but failed placements and vice versa. We had live actor exams and presentation exams as well. I'm not sure how it is now but it was full time when I did it - I had lectures or placements every week day whereas English and media students who I shared accommodation with had 8 hours lectures a week. Our block placements also went into traditional uni holiday times.

That all sounds really negative, it was extreme hard work but I loved it and the challenges it bought and was immensely proud to get through it.

Hi,

I am. I love it. Couldn't ask for a better job.

However, the course is demanding, whether that is the masters or degree. Quire competitive, even now when it isn't funded by the NHS. Good as a career change- lots of my course mates were mature students. I would say the course is the biggest commitment as you really need to focus on placement and the huge (sometimes boring) aspects of the course. The placements make it worthwhile though.

You can choose to work with any client group you wish to and swap between. There is an Increasing demand for more independent work especially with children. I work for the NHS and currently feel my values sit more in line with this service, but I can see why therapists are choosing private work.

You will never be rich as an SLT but its a great career with part time options. High caseloads mean you will never give the the therapy you aspire to give but you can find a post which allows you to do the best you can.

Happy to answer more questions if needed! X

The course is varied so you have to study anatomy/physiology as well as linguistics, psychology, clinical skills and clinical placements. It's difficult to be good at all of these things. I had a lot less free time as a student compared to my friends doing other courses.

To offset my negative post....

On the plus side, getting onto the course is easier now due to the funding changes. My old university were advertising places through clearing this year.

The course itself is fantastic and like PPs have mentioned, covers a huge range of subjects. The phonetics viva was probably the strangest thing I've ever done! Because the curriculum covers such a wide range of subjects, you may develop interests in areas you never knew existed before. Like a PP said, it is difficult to be good at all these things but you don't really have to excel in all of them. Lots of people struggled with the neuro aspects of the course but found they did better in other areas and vice versa.

There is a wide range of specialisms you can get into after qualifying from neonatal care right through to end of life care and everything in between. More and more posts are opening up in the criminal justice system, youth justice, mental health and forensics. There have been some really interesting posts advertised in respiratory care recently.

There is lots of scope for independent practice once you have some experience. The downside of this is that the reason why there is so much independent work available is due to the difficulties parents experience accessing adequate SLT for their children.