Strategic Plan

Issue D

2005 Year-End Progress Report (4^th Quarter)

Issue D: Rapid increase in the knowledge and skill sets needed to provide quality professional services in a culturally competent manner across various practice settings will lead to specialization areas of clinical practice related to communication sciences and disorders.

Outcome 1: Increased awareness and knowledge by ASHA members of how linguistic and cultural differences (e.g., religion, disability, sexual orientation, age, second language learners) impact on research, service delivery, administration, and professional education in the United States.

Completed Strategies

1. Serve as content coordinators for sessions on culturally and linguistically diverse populations at the Schools Conference.
2. Infuse information about culturally appropriate practice into educational programs (e.g., autism, mental retardation/development disabilities, infants/toddlers, assessment in the schools, auditory processing disorders, ethical issues in end-of-life, eligibility for school services).
3. Publish articles in The ASHA Leader to help ASHA members increase their knowledge of how linguistic and cultural differences affect service delivery.
4. Update resources provided in response to technical assistance requests regarding best practices with CLD populations.
5. Disseminate via the ASHA Web, The ASHA Leader, and other communication vehicles normative data on non-English languages for easy access by ASHA members.
6. Serve as Content Coordinator for the telephone seminar: Ethical Issues and Solutions: Working with English Language Learner Students.
7. Analyze data from the cultural competence self-assessment tools.
8. Consult with National Office teams to infuse issues related to culturally and linguistically diverse populations into all e-newsletters and practice policy documents.
9. Provide a link to OMA's "Cultural Competence Self-Assessment Tools" from the Audiology and Audiologists ASHA Web page.
10. Infuse information regarding cultural and linguistic differences throughout practice policy documents, professional education programs, and other products and resources.
11. Work with the Special Interest Divisions, especially Division 14, Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations, to provide information related to cultural diversity to affiliates and ASHA members through newsletters and Convention sessions.

To be Continued in 2006

1. Assist in the revision of the position paper on the Clinical Management of Communicatively Handicapped Linguistic Minority Populations.
2. Assist in the development of a policy document on multicultural issues in audiology.  
3. Assist the Multicultural Issues Board (MIB) in the infusion of multicultural issues throughout Association governance.

Outcome 2: Increased number of knowledge and skill sets in the major component areas of communication sciences and disorders.

Completed Strategies

• Assist ASHA committees to develop knowledge and skill statements in the following areas:   Medicaid supervision in schools, telepractice for SLPs and audiologists, mental retardation/developmental disabilities, early intervention in speech-language pathology, and autism spectrum disorders.

Outcome 3: Identification of the specialization areas in communication sciences and disorders.

Completed Strategies

• Provide technical assistance to Special Interest Division 14 in their consideration of the potential for specialty recognition for bilingual or culturally competent professionals.

To be Continued in 2006

• Work with Division 14, Communication Disorders and Sciences in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations, to explore the feasibility of specialty recognition.

Outcome 4: Increased number of opportunities for clinical specialization in communication sciences and disorders.

Completed Strategies

1. Disseminate information regarding clinical specialization (e.g., invite presentations and displays at Schools Conference and Health Care Conference by Specialty Boards).
2. Cover developments in clinical specialty programs in The ASHA Leader.

Outcome 5: Increased awareness of the knowledge and skill sets related to communication sciences and disorders used in other countries to determine how their identified and verified practice patterns and skill sets can be used to enhance the ASHA knowledge base and skill sets to improve services to members and consumers.

Completed Strategies

1. Investigate the knowledge and skills required of bilingual speech-language pathologists and audiologists in other countries.
2. Investigate the knowledge and skills required in other countries for providing services to bilingual populations.
3. Compile information on service delivery models being used in other countries that take into account cultural variables.
4. Assist other National Office cluster and teams with any data-gathering efforts designed to gather information in support of this outcome, including the collection of baseline, benchmark, and/or evaluative data.

Year-End Status of All Strategies for Issue D (4^th Quarter)

There are 23 strategies in the work plan for Issue D.