A Survey of Speech-language Pathologists: Long-term Speech Therapy Needs for Patients Within Three Neurological Conditions

Forty-seven speech-language pathologists (SLPs) completed a written survey designed to obtain their opinions regarding the speech-language pathology needs of patients presenting with communication deficits following traumatic brain injury, cerebrovascular accident and cerebral palsy. Results indicated that over one-half of the SLPs in the study cited the most common reason that speech therapy is stopped is due to lack of insurance coverage, not because the patient reached maximum improvement. After discharge from services, 78-92% of SLPs affirmed that their patients would have benefitted from ongoing speech-language treatment if insurance limitations were not a consideration. In many instances, therapy was recommended for several years up to lifetime follow-up. Study results demonstrate that a common reason for termination of therapy was due to insurance limits, The implications of this pilot study for life care planners pertain to consulting with SLPs regarding what the evaluation and long term speech-language pathology needs may be for patients with these three neurological disorders, without considering insurance limits.