JCPSLP Vol 17 No 1 2015_lores

Diversity in practice

Diversity in speech pathology Endangered or extinct? Nicole Byrne

Australia’s Health Workforce Series’ report Speech Pathologists in Focus provides an opportunity to review the demographic profile of speech pathologists in Australia over the last 15 years. Currently, speech pathologists are not representative of either the Australian population, or of the clients who access the services. The scant research available also suggests that some population groups are less likely to access health and speech pathology services (e.g., Indigenous Australians, people from non-English speaking backgrounds). Greater workforce diversity, commensurate with the populations serviced, may assist in enhancing equity of services and increasing engagement and attendance at therapy for currently underrepresented client groups. T he recent Health Workforce Australia (2014) report Speech Pathologists in Focus in the Australia’s Health Workforce Series provides the first comprehensive information on the speech pathology workforce in Australia. Byrne (2007) identified that a comprehensive workforce report on speech pathology (SP) has not previously been provided as had been available for other allied health professions, such as physiotherapy (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2000) and occupational therapy (AIHW, 2001). This Health Workforce Australia (2014) Speech Pathologists in Focus report is the first government agency publication providing information on all people working as speech pathologists in Australia. Previous speech pathology workforce reports have been conducted via the professional association, Speech Pathology Australia (SPA; Lambier, 2002). Consequently the data, which were gathered via membership surveys, were limited to those people who were voluntary members of SPA and not necessarily representative of the whole working profession. Additionally, the data may have included people who were not actively working as speech pathologists, but who maintained membership. The current Health Workforce Australia (2014) data reports on SP participation in the Australian workforce and makes comparisons to census data for each of the four-year periods from 1996 to 2011. The current paper considers

the census data reported for 1996 and 2011 (Health Workforce Australia, 2014) and discusses the trends and the possible future implications for the profession. The report also provides information on student enrolment in university programs. The drivers and demographics of the speech pathology workforce in Australia University programs Speech pathology is a growing profession in Australia. Both the number of universities providing SP programs and student intake numbers have grown steadily. For example, in 2007 there were eight Australian universities offering a four-year (full-time) undergraduate Bachelor degree (and some Masters programs) in SP (Charles Sturt, Curtin, Flinders, James Cook, La Trobe, Newcastle, Queensland, Sydney). Macquarie University offered only a Masters entry-level program. By 2014, there were an additional six universities offering the SP program (Australian Catholic [which offers the program on three campuses – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane], Melbourne, Central Queensland, Southern Cross, Edith Cowan, and Griffith; Speech Pathology Australia, 2014a). Male participation rates Table 1 shows that the number of people working as a speech pathologist more than doubled over the data collection period and there was an increase in the number of males working in the profession. Unfortunately, the increase in the male numbers has been proportionally lower than the increase in female numbers. The 2011 participation rate for male speech pathologists (i.e., the proportion of speech pathologists that were male) was the lowest that it had been for the preceding 15 years.

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN PEER- REVIEWED KEYWORDS CAREER CHOICE DIVERSITY SEX DIFFERENCES SP SPEECH PATHOLOGISTS WORKFORCE

Nicole Byrne

Table 1: Male participation in SP workforce

Census 1996 Census 2011

Total speech pathologists

2,322

5,295

Number of male speech pathologists

77

134

% of total that are males

3.3%

2.5%

Source: Health Workforce Australia, 2014

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JCPSLP Volume 17, Number 1 2015

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology