Health Group, Griffith University, Southport, QLD 4222, Australia.
Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Southport, QLD 4222, Australia.
J Public Health (Oxf). 2022 Mar 7;44(1):192-198. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdaa275.
Compared to national averages, the Gold Coast, Australia, has a proportionately higher number of children entering their first year of primary school with 'at risk' or 'vulnerable' language skills. This paper investigates the distribution of paediatric speech-language pathology (SLP) services on the Gold Coast, relative to children's language and cognitive skills, and socioeconomic status (SES).
SLP service locations were identified through national association data and a manual search and mapped against SES and Australian Early Development Census data, for language and cognitive skills.
Data for 7595 children was included, with 943 (12.4%) at risk and 780 (12.6%) vulnerable for language and cognitive skills. A total of 75 SLPs were identified (85.3% private, 14.6% public), which is 1 SLP to every 23 children who might have current or impending speech, language and communication needs. Fewer services were available in areas where vulnerable children were located and most were private providers, leading to further potential barriers to service access.
The number of SLP services located on the Gold Coast is inadequate to meet the needs of children with language and cognitive skill vulnerabilities. Consideration of how services might be distributed is explored and warrants further consideration.
与全国平均水平相比，澳大利亚黄金海岸有相对更多的儿童在进入小学一年级时，语言技能处于“高危”或“脆弱”状态。本文调查了黄金海岸地区儿科言语-语言病理学（SLP）服务的分布情况，该分布与儿童的语言和认知技能以及社会经济地位（SES）有关。
通过国家协会数据和手动搜索确定 SLP 服务地点，并将其与 SES 和澳大利亚早期发展普查数据中的语言和认知技能相对应。
共纳入 7595 名儿童的数据，其中 943 名（12.4%）存在语言和认知技能高危风险，780 名（12.6%）存在脆弱风险。共确定了 75 名言语治疗师（85.3%为私人执业，14.6%为公共执业），即每 23 名可能存在当前或潜在言语、语言和沟通需求的儿童就有 1 名言语治疗师。在脆弱儿童所在的地区，服务机构较少，且大多数为私人提供者，这导致服务获取的进一步潜在障碍。
黄金海岸地区的 SLP 服务数量不足以满足语言和认知技能脆弱儿童的需求。考虑如何分配服务的问题已经展开探讨，并值得进一步考虑。
