Speech-Language Therapy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Development and Sustainability of Services for Persons with Communication Disability

The Academic Study of Rehabilitation: Prioritizing University Curriculum for the Preparation of Practitioners in the International Field

“…However, the corresponding scarcity of post-secondary rehabilitation education training programs is an underlying problem. As previously stated, many countries in the Global South (e.g., Lebanon, Philippines, Uganda, Togo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa) have documented a need for more rehabilitation specialists in areas such as speech and language impairment, vision loss, traumatic brain injury, vocational rehabilitation, and mental illness -including substance abuse (Boutros & Fakih, 2023;Cobley, 2015;Hashemi et al, 2017;Pendse et al, 2019;Pollard, 2022;Wylie et al, 2023). Future speech and language pathologists, vision therapists, cognitive rehabilitation professionals, and others need access to the appropriate academic programs to prepare them for specialized practice in the Global South.…”

Communication disability in low and middle-income countries: a call to action

“…An appropriate communication (re)habilitation workforce needs to align with economic, population, cultural and practical needs in LMICs, especially because workforce development is time and resource intensive. 22 Examples of contextually responsive approaches to service development for PWCD in LMICs are proposed in the Equitable, Population-based, Innovations for Communication (EPIC) Framework, 23 and the Afrocentric Communication Disability Rehabilitation Framework. 22 EPIC adopts a decolonising critical lens to consider how services for people with communication and swallowing needs can be offered in ways that are more equitable, address the needs within the whole population and harness innovation.…”

“… 22 Examples of contextually responsive approaches to service development for PWCD in LMICs are proposed in the Equitable, Population-based, Innovations for Communication (EPIC) Framework, 23 and the Afrocentric Communication Disability Rehabilitation Framework. 22 EPIC adopts a decolonising critical lens to consider how services for people with communication and swallowing needs can be offered in ways that are more equitable, address the needs within the whole population and harness innovation. Synergistically, the Afrocentric Communication Disability Rehabilitation Framework also highlights the need to leverage change to build capacity in the community to meet population needs and promote equity in ways that are culturally and contextually responsive.…”