Parents with physical disabilities and perinatal services: defining parents’ needs and their access to services

Because of recent medical advances and increasing advocacy for the rights of people with disabilities, more and more people with disabilities are becoming parents. Parenthood is considered a fundamental right by the United Nations, and appropriate perinatal services are an important promoting factor for positive parenting experience and practices. Despite this, access to parenthood and access to services is still hindered for parents and future parents with disabilities. This scoping review, based on eighteen (n=18) studies, provides a unique insight into the relationship between parents with physical disabilities and perinatal services.Results suggest that four main determinants influence this relationship: mothers’ needs, professionals’ characteristics, quality of relationship with professionals, and organization of services. Issues related to accessing information and the services themselves were also identified. Finally, a framework for accessibility is presented to better understand how to improve access to appropriate services for parents with physical disabilities.

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International Telesupervision: The Clinical Fellowship Experience

Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups ◽

10.1044/persp2.sig11.73 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2 (11) ◽

pp. 73-78

Author(s):

David W. Rule ◽

Lisa N. Kelchner

Keyword(s):

Graduate Students ◽

Clinical Supervision ◽

Rural Areas ◽

The United States ◽

Speech Language Pathology ◽

Access To Services ◽

East African ◽

The World ◽

Language Pathology ◽

National Certification

Telepractice technology allows greater access to speech-language pathology services around the world. These technologies extend beyond evaluation and treatment and are shown to be used effectively in clinical supervision including graduate students and clinical fellows. In fact, a clinical fellow from the United States completed the entire supervised clinical fellowship (CF) year internationally at a rural East African hospital, meeting all requirements for state and national certification by employing telesupervision technology. Thus, telesupervision has the potential to be successfully implemented to address a range of needs including supervisory shortages, health disparities worldwide, and access to services in rural areas where speech-language pathology services are not readily available. The telesupervision experience, potential advantages, implications, and possible limitations are discussed. A brief guide for clinical fellows pursuing telesupervision is also provided.

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