|
The article "SLPS and the World of Work" in the June 24 issue of The ASHA Leader is disturbing on many levels. First, why no mention of services performed by audiologists for the industrial community? Over 56% of audiologists are actively involved in performing such services, including training of occupational hearing conservationists, and many provide a variety of consultation services, including prevention of noise-induced hearing loss to various corporate entities.
Item two was the corporate Web site to which readers are directed (http://www.speechtherapist.net/) for weekly "chat rooms." Does no one remember the controversy surrounding our adoption of the designation "speech-language pathologist" as the preferred title to "speech therapist"? Few of us are still around who remember the fight waged by ASHA under the leadership of then President Jon Eisenson to prevent a "takeover" of our profession by the American Association of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, a group of physicians who claimed a right of control of speech therapists comparable to their alleged control of physical and occupational therapists.
The fight was won by ASHA and a decision reached by ASHA and Ken Johnson, then our executive secretary, that a term was needed to identify practitioners in our field, different from another kind of "therapist" and one recognizing the independent, autonomous nature of our profession. Those who do not remember our history will certainly repeat the errors of previous generations.
Maurice H. Miller
New York, NY
|