Alighieri Cassandra, De Bock Marlies, Galiwango George, Sseremba Daniel, Van Lierde Kristiane
Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.
Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services in Uganda (CoRSU), Kisubi, Uganda.
Logoped Phoniatr Vocol. 2023 Dec;48(4):154-162. doi: 10.1080/14015439.2022.2049637. Epub 2022 Mar 21.
This paper describes the current situation of the provision of speech-language services in East Africa. An overview of the educational opportunities, workforce density, communication rehabilitation planning, caseload, and ethical and/or cultural challenges is provided.
A narrative review was performed. All papers referring to communication disorders in East African countries were identified from EMBASE, PubMed, ISI Web of Science: Science Citation Index Expanded, and ISI Web of Science: Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Science using the following search terms: speech therapy, speech pathology, speech-language pathology, speech-language rehabilitation, speech-language therapy, logopedics, East Africa, communication disorders, communication difficulties. Two concepts were combined with a Boolean operator 'AND'.
At present, there is an alarming shortage of speech-language pathologists in East Africa. This issue is mainly related to the limited availability of educational programs in speech-language pathology. Although more and more universities are beginning to offer such educational programs, the number of available speech-language pathologists is still too low to meet the needs of all children with communication disorders. In addition, speech-language pathologists are often faced with different cultural and ethical obstacles when they provide intervention to East African children with communication disorders. These speech-language pathologists are therefore challenged to take a broader view of their role as a therapist. These alternative roles often include training of other individuals in the context of community-based rehabilitation.
In the future, it will be important to carefully consider the development of sustainable learning opportunities in East African contexts. Initiatives, for example, "train-the-trainer" workshops, are needed to support the speechlanguage pathologists. Existing models like the communication disability model can aid to create holistic frameworks for the development of sustainable speech-language services in the East African countries.
本文描述了东非地区言语语言服务的提供现状。概述了教育机会、劳动力密度、沟通康复计划、工作量以及伦理和/或文化挑战。
进行了一项叙述性综述。使用以下检索词从EMBASE、PubMed、ISI科学网：科学引文索引扩展版以及ISI科学网：会议论文引文索引 - 科学版中识别所有提及东非国家沟通障碍的论文：言语治疗、言语病理学、言语语言病理学、言语语言康复、言语语言治疗、言语矫正学、东非、沟通障碍、沟通困难。两个概念用布尔运算符“AND”组合。
目前，东非地区言语语言病理学家严重短缺。这个问题主要与言语语言病理学教育项目的有限可用性有关。尽管越来越多的大学开始提供此类教育项目，但可用的言语语言病理学家数量仍然过低，无法满足所有沟通障碍儿童的需求。此外，言语语言病理学家在为东非沟通障碍儿童提供干预时，经常面临不同的文化和伦理障碍。因此，这些言语语言病理学家面临着从更广泛角度看待其治疗师角色的挑战。这些替代角色通常包括在社区康复背景下培训其他人员。
未来，仔细考虑东非地区可持续学习机会的发展将很重要。需要开展诸如“培训培训师”工作坊等举措来支持言语语言病理学家。像沟通障碍模型这样的现有模式有助于为东非国家可持续言语语言服务的发展创建整体框架。
