Saving Early Intervention
Thank you to everyone who wrote into the “Surviving the
Financial Crunch” post and for sharing your personal experiences regarding the
financial hardships we are facing not only as an industry, but also as a nation.
Therapists wrote in from across the country: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, South
Carolina, and Illinois, voicing individual stories, concerns and frustrations.
For some of you, your unfaltering dedication to EI was heard
and is respected. Some of you even shared different ideas regarding HOW to fix
the problem(s) in your area and what needs to happen to make things better.
Others recommended that therapists leave EI altogether and
pursue areas where there is also a need, which of course are many and just as
noble. In addition, some readers have already left EI and as one therapist
stated simply and honestly, “I hope someday to go back to it (EI) but I have
bills to pay”.
Others have shared that these financial woes ARE affecting
not only EI but other populations, such as Head Start programs, day cares and
nursing homes as well. Not to add salt to the wound, but I also need to share a
story.
A close friend of mine works as an OT in our neighborhood school
district, which is a large and well respected area for education. At their
recent back-to-school meetings they were informed that the district believes
they can pay the employees until December, but is not certain that they will be
able to past then. The reason why I wanted to share this is that although
moving into another venue of speech therapy may be a temporary solution, who
knows what the more long term reality may be.
If you are like many of the other millions of Americans out
there who have been closely watching the health care debate that has been
raging through the country this summer, you may or may not have your own vision
of what the solution(s) may be. I, of course, have my own opinion of what needs
to happen to improve health care in this country, which could also directly
affect EI services for many families who need it; however I would like to open
the floor to the readers out there.
Now that we have shared our concerns and know
the bitter reality of what is happening to our education, health care and
overall economic situations in this country, what should we as a people be
advocating for? What does the country need to rebuild our economy and the field
of EI which is being threatened as a result? Now that we have identified the needs and problems, let’s talk about the
solutions!