The waitlist...

You finally finish the evaluation process and your child now qualifies for services. You're relieved. One - you finally have answers and two- you're about to get some help for your child.

And then you get told your child is going on the waitlist. But how? You just went through that whole process (that also felt like forever) only to not receive the help you and your child need.

We need to start labeling it exactly what it is - a crisis.

It is not just in my home state of NY either, it is everywhere. There are not enough therapists and teachers to service the needs of students ages birth to 5. I can tell you that children are showing up to Kindergarten having never received the Speech PT or OT they needed for the previous few years.

The only way to make real change is to look the truth in the face - the systems that were designed to work are no longer working. We (society) are simply not producing enough therapists to meet the need of these little ones.

Even if you are a therapist - you are overworking yourself because you want to help. But also realize when you do so - you're not at your best clinical self (speaking personally from years of burnout in schools and working more then 1 therapy job at a time).

The pay, regulations, caseload caps, and collegiate programs need to adapt or soon - this crisis will become an epidemic.

Speaking as an SLP (well writing as an SLP), in the state of New York, we (SLPs) cannot have SLPA's (speech -language pathology assistants). Which is opposite of OT's and PT's (can have assistants). In the state of New York, SLPs are often mixed with teachers and fall under teacher contracts in school districts, getting confused in the process of what teaching is versus clinical skills. In order to treat students ages 3 and over, you legally must carry a NY state teaching certificate.

As a private practice owner desperate to hire another SLP, I've wasted thousands of dollars trying to hire simply to fill the need. It's truly worrisome where our profession is headed.

Parents have come to me (exasperated) and stated how terrible the system is and how can it be there are not enough professionals...

We (again society) need to start making change and have some out of the box thinking about how to provide services, or thousands and thousands of children will be entering Kindergarten with no way to really catch up.

Please know this blog post is to inform and educate about the crisis we are having, today.

-Christina