Sustainable workforce: South African Audiologists and Speech Therapists

Abstract

Background: Audiologists and Speech Therapists play a vital role in addressing sustainable development goals by supporting people who are marginalised due to communication challenges. The global burden of disease and poor social living conditions impact negatively on the development of healthy communication, therefore requiring the services of Audiologist and Speech therapists. Against this background, we examined the demographic profile and the supply, need and shortfall of Audiologists and Speech Therapists in South Africa. Methods: The data set was drawn from the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) registers (for 2002-2017) for the speech, language and hearing professions. This demographic profile of the professions was created based on the category of health personnel; category of practice, geographical location, population group (race) and sex. The annual supply was estimated from the HPCSA database while the service-target approach was used to estimate need. Additional need based on National Health Insurance Bill was also included. Supply-need gaps were forecast according to three scenarios, which varied according to the future intensity of policy intervention to increase occupancy of training places: 'best guess' (no intervention), 'optimistic' (feasible intervention), and 'aspirational' (significant intervention) scenarios up to 2030. Results: Most (i.e. 1548, 47.4%) of the professionals are registered as Audiologists and Speech Therapists, followed by 33.5% registered as Speech Therapists and 19.1% registered as Audiologists. Around 88.5% professionals registered as Audiologists and Speech Therapists are practising independently, and 42.6% are practising in the Gauteng province. The profession is comprised majorly of women (94.6%), and in terms of the population groups (race), they are mainly classified as white (59.7%). In 2017, in best guess scenario, there is a supply-need gap of around 2800 professionals. In the absence of any intervention to increase supply capacity, this shortfall will remain same by the year 2030. By contrast, in aspirational scenario, i.e. supply is increased by 300%, the forecasted shortfall for 2030 reduces to 2300 from 2800 professionals. Conclusions: It is clear that without significant interventions, South Africa is likely to have a critical shortfall of Audiologists and Speech Therapists in 2030. Policy-makers will have to carefully examine issues surrounding the current framework regulating training of these and associated professionals, in order to respond adequately to future requirements.

‘We are in this together’ voices of speech-language pathologists working in South African healthcare contexts during level 4 and level 5 lockdown of COVID-19

“…Most respondents were from Gauteng (n = 16), followed by Western Cape (n = 11), with 23 SLPs from the public sector, and 16 working in the private health sector, namely, 13 working in a private hospital and three SLPs working in a private rehabilitation context. It was unfortunate that the response rate was not higher, given that there are currently 2643 SLPs registered with the HPCSA (Pillay et al, 2020). Whilst acknowledged under the limitations, the researchers were cognisant of the timing of data collection -there were an unusually high number of surveys being completed at the time of the data collection because of the coronavirus pandemic.…”

“…http://www.sajcd.org.za Open Access with regard to who accesses these services and the availability of resources (Pillay, Tiwari, Kathard, & Chikte, 2020;Shai & Ogunnubi, 2018). Thus, it was important to understand how healthcare professionals in both private and public, who are working in low-and middle-income countries such as SA, experienced the impact of COVID-19 at the strictest levels of lockdown.…”

What are the implications of climate change for speech and language therapists?

“…Speech and language therapy services are sparse in these countries. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, there was a ratio of 0-6 speech and language therapists per million population (Jochmann 2006, Mulwafu et al 2017, Wylie et al 2012 and similar limitations can be found in Asia and other parts of Africa (Cheng 2010, Chu et al 2019, Haas 2015, Pillay et al 2020. Many of the Sub-Saharan African countries have no training programmes for SLTs (Mulwafu et al 2017).…”

“…2019, Haas 2015, Pillay et al . 2020). Many of the Sub‐Saharan African countries have no training programmes for SLTs (Mulwafu et al .…”

A Situational Mapping Overview of Training Programmes for Community-Based Rehabilitation Workers in Southern Africa: Strategies for Strengthening Accessible Rural Rehabilitation Practice

“…Consequently, human resource analysis shows higher disability prevalence and higher service demands in contexts with shortages of human resources (11). While many human resource national plans and reviews tend to leave out rehabilitation (2), studies in countries like in South Africa (17)(18)(19), in Malawi (20) and in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda (9,21) indicate this field and its workforce constraints in less resourced settings (22).…”