Telepractice as a Reaction to the COVID-19 Crisis: Insights from Croatian SLP Settings

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/ijt.2020.6325

Keywords:

Client selection, COVID-19, Direct therapy, SLP satisfaction, Telepractice

Abstract

Telepractice facilitates services in exceptional settings and situations. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is certainly such a situation. Due to pandemic-related restrictions, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) needed to adopt new approaches to their professional functioning. The aim of the paper is to examine SLP professionals’ perceptions and application of telepractice in SLP settings in Croatia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two hundred and fifty-five SLPs completed an online survey. The results demonstrated that most SLPs had provided direct online therapy, mainly those employed in health care and private practice. The chief reasons for clients’ refusal of therapy delivered via telepractice included the lack of equipment, insufficient independence, and doubts on the effectiveness of telepractice. Although only 3% of SLPs had acquired some formal knowledge of telepractice before the pandemic, over 70% expressed satisfaction with telepractice because it allowed them to provide undisturbed clinical services in an exceptional situation.

  

Author Biographies

Jelena Kuvac Kraljevic, University of Zagreb

Department of Speech and Language Pathology

Ana Matic, University of Zagreb

Department of Speech and Language Pathology

References

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2019). Telepractice: Overview. https://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Professional-Issues/Telepractice/

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2020). COVID-19: Tracking of state laws and regulations for telepractice and licensure policy. https://www.asha.org/uploadedFiles/State-Telepractice-Policy-COVID-Tracking.pdf

Boyle, J. M. (2007). A randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation of direct versus indirect and individual versus group modes of speech and language therapy for children with primary language impairment. Health technology assessment, 11(25), 1-139.

Cason, J., & Cohn, E. R. (2014). Telepractice: An overview and best practices. Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 23(1), 4-17. https://doi.org/10.1044/aac23.1.4

Cohn, E. R. (2012). Tele-ethics in telepractice for communication disorders. Perspectives on Telepractice, 2, 3-15. https://pubs.asha.org/doi/full/10.1044/tele2.1.3

Comité Permanent de Liaison des Orthophonistes-logopèdes de l’ue, CPLOL [Standing liaison Committee of EU Speech and language therapists and Logopedists] (2020). Speech-language therapy practice during COVID-19 emergency crisis. https://www.cplol.eu/documents/official-documents/1269-cplol-covid-19-statement/file.html

Comité Permanent de Liaison des Orthophonistes-logopèdes de l’ue, CPLOL [Standing liaison Committee of EU Speech and language therapists and Logopedists] (2020). COVID-19 Survey summary report. https://www.cplol.eu/documents/reports/1272-covid-19-survey-summary-report/file.html

Corp, I. B. M. (2015). IBM SPSS statistics for windows, Version 23.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.

Croatian Bureau of Statistics. (2018). Digital economy and society statistics - households and individuals [Online]. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Digital_economy_and_society_statistics_-_households_and_individuals/hr

Finch, E., Lethlean, J., Rose, T., Fleming, J., Theodoros, D., Cameron, A., Coleman, A., Copland, D., & McPhail, S. M. (2020). Conversations between people with aphasia and speech pathology students via telepractice: A Phase II feasibility study. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 55(1), 43-58. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12501

Hall, N., Boisvert, M., & Steele, R. (2013). Telepractice in the assessment and treatment of individuals with aphasia: A systematic review. International Journal of Telerehabilitation, 5(1), 27-38. https://doi.org/10.5195/ijt.2013.6119

Ivšac Pavliša, J., Ljubešić, M., & Jerečić, I. (2012). The use of AAC with young children in Croatia-from the speech and language pathologist's view. In: G. Ježić, Y. J. Chen-Burger, R. J. Howlett, L. C. Jain, LJ. Vlačić, & R. Šperka (Eds.), Agent and Multi-Agent Systems: Technology and Applications' Proceedings of the 6th International Conference (pp. 221-230). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer Verlag.

Ivšac Pavliša, J., Peretić, M., Bohaček, A. M., & Talian, K. (2016). IKT u vrtiću – od istraživanja do primjene. [ICT in kindergarten - from research to application]. Dijete, vrtić, obitelj: časopis za odgoj i naobrazbu predškolske djece namijenjen stručnjacima i roditeljima, 80/81, 16-20.

Kuvač Kraljević, J., Pavičić Dokoza, K., & Matić, A., (2019). Croatian National Vignette. In J. Law, C. McKean, C. A. Murphy, & E. Thordardottir, E. (Eds.), Managing children with developmental language disorder: Theory and practice across Europe and beyond (1st Edition, pp. 169-178). Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group.

Law, J., Dennis, J. A., & Charlton, J. J. V. (2017). Speech and language therapy interventions for children with primary speech and/or language disorders (Protocol). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 1. CD012490. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD012490

Law, J., Levicks, P., Rodriguez Ortiz, I., Matić, A., Lyons, R., Messarra, C., Hreich, K. E., & Stankova, M. (2019). Working with the parents and families of children with developmental language disorders: An international perspective. Journal of Communication Disorders, 82, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2019.15922

Matić, A., Kuvač Kraljević, J., Kologranić Belić, L., & Olujić Tomazin, M. (2018). Group-based direct and indirect approaches to language therapy for children with developmental language disorder: A pre-experimental study. Clinical Psychology 11(1-2), 21-38. https://doi.org/10.21465/2018-KP-1-2-0002

McGill, M., Noureal, N., & Siegel, J. (2019). Telepractice treatment of stuttering: A systematic review. Telemedicine and e-Health, 25(5), 359-368. https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2017.0319

Molini-Avejonas, D., Rondon-Melo, S., de La Higuera Amato, C. A., & Samelli, A. G. (2015). A systematic review of the use of telehealth in speech, language and hearing sciences. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 21(7), 367-376. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357633X15583215

Parsons, D., Cordier, R., Vaz, S., & Lee, H. C. (2017). Parent-mediated intervention training delivered remotely for children with autism spectrum disorder living outside of urban areas: Systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 19(8), e198. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.6651

Plantak Vukovac, D. (2016). Employing educational video in speech-language telerehabilitation with children: Insight from interviews with parents. Proceedings of EDULEARN16 Conference, 5435-5444.

Plantak Vukovac, D., Novosel-Herceg, T., & Orehovački, T. (2015). Users’ needs in telehealth speech-language pathology services. Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Information Systems Development. Harbin, Hong Kong, SAR: Department of Information, Systems, 1-12.

Powell, R. K. (2018). Unique contributors to the curriculum: From research to practice for speech-language pathologists in schools. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 49, 140-147. doi: https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_LSHSS-17-0059

Weidner, K., & Lowman, J. (2020). Telepractice for adult speech-language pathology services: A systematic review. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 5(1), 326-338. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_PERSP-19-00146

World Health Organization (2016). Global Health Observatory (GHO) data - Telehealth: Analysis of third global survey on ehealth based on the reported data by countries. https://www.who.int/gho/goe/telehealth/en/

Downloads

Published

2020-12-08

How to Cite

Kuvac Kraljevic, J., Matic, A., & Pavicic Dokoza, K. (2020). Telepractice as a Reaction to the COVID-19 Crisis: Insights from Croatian SLP Settings. International Journal of Telerehabilitation, 12(2), 93–104. https://doi.org/10.5195/ijt.2020.6325

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 2 (2020)

Section

Clinical Practice -COVID 19

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.