Dear Director...

Dear Director,
My cooperative is really feeling the staff shortage right now, particularly in the area of speech-language pathologists, and it doesn't look promising in the near future.  I have been approached with the tele-therapy idea, but I really don't know enough to make a good decision about it.  Do you have any experience with this?
Seeking advice

Dear Seeking,
I haven't ever used these services either, but I know a number of directors who have.  They have used online speech therapy in life skills settings focusing on language and with students who have articulation needs.  These directors report that they have had positive results, the SLPs are held to very high standards for documentation and communication, and collaboration with school and home has been very good.  Some agencies are willing to work with a district or cooperative's budgetary limitations.  Cost-wise, in my area, it was comparative to contracting with a live person.  There are many tele-therapy agencies out there, so you have the opportunity to comparison shop.  One drawback is that you cannot make Medicaid claims for tele-therapy at this time.

To our readers, we would love to hear your experiences with tele-therapy - please comment!

1 comment:

  1. Being from a rural area, this is good information. I would love to hear more people's experiences.

    ReplyDelete

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