Untitled

[Minnette]

I'm a speech and language therapist and a regular lurker on this board.

I've noticed over the time I've been reading this board that there's a general feeling that NHS speech therapists are useless. Some of you are paying privately and think the service you receive is much better. Those of you who are happy with this service encourage other parents to do the same.

I've been working in the NHS for 12 years and it's been a very stressful experience. The vast majority of my colleagues enjoy their clinical work but feel worn down by the system they have to work in. There's a general feeling that we are too far stretched to be effective.

Last month a good friend of mine resigned from the NHS to practice privately. Her charges will be £60 per hour for a regular therapy session. This week two more former colleagues have done the same. In the 12 years I've been working I've never known such an exodus of skilled staff and the reasons they cite are that they do not feel valued by their employers of the people they are employed to help. It seems possible that the NHS service will eventually become staffed by recently-qualified therapists biding their time and gaining the experience to set up independently.

Personally I haven't worked for almost two years but was considering going back to the NHS after easter. However, since my colleagues started to resign (and from reading your comments about NHS therapists on this board) I am considering withdrawing two job applications and setting up an independent practice myself.

I am interested to know what parents think of these developments, developments I'm convinced are just the beginnings of a wider brain drain from the NHS. What proportion of you can afford to pay privately and do you think this will improve the NHS for other patients?

Do you have healthcare insurance that can cover this? What if physio/OT staff go the same way?

It seems the moral argument isn't just about those who can afford to pay being seen more quickly, it looks as though they may end up being seen by more experienced staff too. As far as I'm concerned, the NHS has let me down, why shouldn't I take my skills elsewhere?

Just a discussion point really??

Yes I agree moondog about special schools being a place to teach independence. Within a year of arriving at special school ds1 was able to go independently to the office to pick up the register. He couldn't have been taught that in ms as it wouldn't have been safe to let him try. He can sit and watch harvest festivals etc (and take part) that are an hour long. At ms he didn't manage 3 minutes.

That was a view expressed in a recent ms vs special report I read (expressed by young people with disabilites who had been in both settings- and in most cases had something positive to say about both settings- special schools pushed them to be more independent).

I often get a feeling that putting kids with SN into m/s schools is often great for NT kids (in that the concept of some people having SN is completel normalised) and er....that's about it.

Wouldn'tt deny however that there is value in this. I was supervising a trainee SW today 9new to the filed of LD) and she told me how she can see the completely different way that people under the age of,say 40, react when she accompanies someone with an LD out and about in the community, compared to older folk who have had SN hidden from view while growing up.

Could I just hijack the thread to ask how you go about getting a private appointment with a SALT? How can I get contact details?

There must be other ways though moondog - to get that solution.

type ASLTIP into google emkana.

This is the best site to use Em.All registered folk

Are you still worried about S?

What,to normalise SN you mean Yurt?

Yes still worried, still no words, even though he might just be starting to shake his head for no and to try and say "yeah", but I could be imagining that.

Thanks for the info

Ho old is he now again?

20 months

Have you asked for a NHS salt assessment?
Waiting lists of a year are a thing of the past now.

Is he pointing/playing imaginatively/making eye contact/responding to voices and so on?

emkana, just popped into this thread as saw your name - my ds2 is a month and half older than S I think, and he has JUST started walking, and talking hasn't really taken off yet - every so often I think I can hear words like 'du' for duck, but nothing like I hear other children using. I think he is just slow, and being a third child is relishing being a baby, but I'll follow what you do with S (although I know S has separate issues). Hope you're relieved soon and he starts chattering away!

Yes to all those!

We were referred in December, phoned late January to see what was happening and they said they were sending out appointments for October. Have not had letter though.

X post tortoiseshell

that's reassuring to read that your ds is similar, here's hoping that he too will be taking off with his speech soon!

That's good!
Ring them again. And again. And again/
We have 12 week waiting lists in my area which is standard.

yep MD.

My DS first saw an SALT when he was around 15 months old, but we didn't start to get regular sessions until a year later. I can see from some of the comments on this thread that that was probably an attempt at getting him "on the books" and therefore not on the waiting list...

We had weekly sessions with the SALT at her clinic for nearly a year until he began sessions at his preschool, and they were mostly useless. She was very experienced (apparently) but she seemed to have no idea whatsoever about how to reach a non verbal autistic boy with no imitating skills. He just wasn't motivated to pay attention to her and spent the entire time trying to slam cupboard doors and persuade me to put him back in his buggy and leave. I used to leave the sessions in tears.

The breakthrough came when his ABA therapist accompanied him to a couple of his sessions and picked up a few tips that helped her guide his therapy - that combination of skills has worked incredibly well. His therapist was able to use her ABA techniques to teach him to imitate, and then she could introduce ideas introduced by the SALT into her sessions. She developed a real amateur interest in SALT as a result of this experience and DS1 has really benefitted.

I really think that, especially when working with autistic preschoolers, SALT's could do the most good by sharing their skills with the professionals who spend hours and hours of one-to-one time with a child.

Very nicely put Captain.
The only way anything useful ever gets done is through multi-disciplinary working. It is beyond belief that some salts don't get this.

Yurt,yes I totally agree.There is no justification for mainstreaming SN kids if that is the only benefit.

Very nicely put Captain.
The only way anything useful ever gets done is through multi-disciplinary working. It is beyond belief that some salts don't get this.

Yurt,yes I totally agree.There is no justification for mainstreaming SN kids if that is the only benefit.