REPRESENTATIVES of the island’s speech therapists yesterday said they were still fighting an uphill battle for professional recognition and better pay, while trying to enlighten the government and the public about correcting speech handicaps.
Cyprus Association of Speech Therapists members Naia Leontiadou and Maria Paphiou-Violari told a news conference their profession was, in the main, undervalued and ignored in public and private circles.
They noted that the Education Ministry has only 30 speech therapists on staff for the whole country, representing about half the Association’s 57 registered members.
While far from ideal, Leontiadou said that even this number was an improvement over past years, "when only five (speech) professionals were spread out among the hundreds of (primary) schools" on the island.
"We are constantly trying to persuade the Health and Education Ministries of the need to introduce more professionals into the public sector," Paphiou-Violari said.
Besides inadequate staff numbers, Paphiou-Violari said school facilities are inadequate for proper speech therapy. She said their profession also needs to expand into pre-primary and high school levels.
"If you look at the results of my work," she protested, "I would not be able to call myself a good speech therapist. But what do you expect when you have only 20 minutes with each child in the photocopy room of a school, with people coming in out and out every few minutes?"
Leontiadou recalled she once had to treat speech-handicapped children on a school playground bench for lack of suitable space.
She said the association had been promised a separate room in the new Nicosia General Hospital, still under construction, and had "already begun raising money for equipment" for it.
Despite this, both women noted that few speech therapists were willing to work at state hospitals because of low pay scales.
The two women noted that speech therapists have skills that are useful in many areas that are currently neglected, such as helping accident victims learn to speak properly. But they said medical professionals often ignored this expertise, failing even to inform such patients of the possible benefits of speech therapy.
To call more attention to their profession, the association has organised a Public Information Week, starting on Monday, May 22 .
Events include screenings of the award-winning film Toy Story, a fund-raising fashion show, a children’s theatre production and a series of lectures on speech problems. For more information, contact the association on 02-313470.
