Dear Editor:

The professional in charge of carrying out speech therapy and phoniatrics therapy does not have an Occupational Therapy profile included in their training. Although in undergraduate training they are two independent specialties, in practice both are very closely linked in order to achieve the best rehabilitation for the patient.

The speech therapist training process has gone through different transformations in order to raise the quality of students with the aim of being able to provide better educational offers for children with language and communication disorders. Stimulating language development in children, adolescents and young people with language and communication disorders is one of the fundamental objectives of this specialty [1].

Occupational therapy has been used since ancient times where music and games were applied in the care of mentally ill people. Its purpose of work is for people with disabilities or affected by an illness, in the prevention, restoration and conservation of sensorimotor, cognitive and psycho social skills, which allow the individual to function independently and functionally [2].

Up to this point it can be seen that both profiles have as a common denominator the care of patients with some type of deficiency or disability. According to the experience gained by the authors, when rehabilitation is being carried out on a patient with these characteristics, they generally have language needs that are improved with occupational therapy exercises.

It is unquestionable that to achieve comprehensive rehabilitation for all patients with cognitive and sensorimotor difficulties, interdisciplinary is necessary. In this case, speech therapy professionals would have a fundamental tool for the rehabilitation of the patient with the integration of knowledge from occupational therapy.

In this sense, it is necessary to have ways and how to act to improve the quality of life in patients treated by speech therapy services. This rehabilitation will be with an integrative and holistic approach where the patient is seen from a biopsychosocial and spiritual perspective.

To ensure that the speech therapist can carry out occupational therapy actions, he needs to raise his level of information to respect. The implementation of a training course for this purpose could be one of the ways that can be used to achieve this objective.

In the educational system of the University of Medical Sciences, it is indicated to raise the scientific quality in its training for all levels of education. This teaching will have to be continued in the postgraduate course, responding to the demands of the health sector to have a professional prepared to take on occupational rehabilitation actions along with the different speech therapy treatments.

With this course you will be able to acquire a general preparation with a greater future in the area of health sciences. It is important to incorporate intervention modalities and techniques in Occupational Therapy, in order to satisfy the needs demanded by individuals and population groups, contributing to raising their level and quality of life, with a high level of responsibility and sensitivity.

The course is implemented to be developed during 20 face-toface conference meetings complemented by the practical classes of each conference. Each meeting has a periodic evaluation system to define the students’ knowledge gain. This takes the form of a system of professional pedagogical skills for the proper direction of these processes.

Postgraduate training based on the conjugation of the substantive processes of the university is essential, to integrate the academic, work and research components and university extension in the training process. The constant improvement of the speech therapist training process promotes the upward movement towards comprehensive training and the development of professional skills that are increasingly tempered with the reality that the professional faces.

Authorship statement

Carmen Rosa Alfonso Echemendia: Conceptualization, writingreview and editing.

Juan Carlos Mirabal Requena: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing the original draft and Writingreview and editing.

All authors agreed with the final report.

References

1. Fornaris Méndez M, Huepp Ramos FL (2022) Historical analysis of the training process of speech therapists in Cuba. University and Society Magazine 14: 87-97. [Ref.]
2. 2. Borau Lacasa P, López Pozo A, Blasco García M, Pardo Sanz MP (2022) Occupation as a therapeutic means, a look through history. Health research journal 3. [Ref.]

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Article Type: LETTER TO EDITOR

Citation: Alfonso Echemendia CR, Mirabal Requena JC (2024) Need to Integrate Occupational Therapy with Speech Therapy and Phoniatrics. J Clin Case Stu 9(2): doi: dx.doi.org/10.16966/2471-4925.276

Copyright: © 2024 Alfonso Echemendia CR, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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