Everybody Thinks They Can Do Speech Therapy

I occasionally tell my fellow healers with a half-smirk on my face, when trying to justify some bump in the road during a tough workday: "You know, speech therapy has an inferiority complex". It's an off - handed comment, very much like the very bad joke I use to decline a high-carb treat offered at work: "it makes my hair fall out". Some of my workdays are tough, though they're not any more frequent than those of any other speech-language pathologist.  We're the communication specialists, aren't we? It's part of our mission to close the circle, to help
the joint establishment of meaning. 

I share that comment about inferiority, because it sometimes feels as if everybody thinks they can do speech therapy. That's right! All the people with whom I work; all my family; neighbors; producers of TV shows and movies; the stakeholders of persons served, and their relatives and neighbors, etc. All these folks and more try to tell the story of CSD, without employing speech therapists to do the storytelling...I am Woody Allen on a "Dick Cavett Show" stage, kvetching about how unappreciated my colleagues and I can feel. Thirty-six years of work since receiving my "C's", have taught me that there is no shortage of others who know and can do an SLP's work, better than an SLP can.

My colleagues tell me that I shouldn't get my arytenoids in a bunch, about the free advice on clinical practice I'm given almost daily. Do I get this advice, because I slighted a person served? Does the advice betray some insecurity I have about my competence for the job? Should I just shut up and then say, "thank you" to my benefactors? I love my work, and know I do often make a difference. But, regardless of their motivation, it seems that there still occur in our practice settings, circumstances that bring about -

* no referral
* late referral
* vague referral
* colleagues making treatment decisions
* direct care staff making treatment decisions

 We'll drill down - or, lift the shells - in a subsequent blog post.