I prepared an intervention about Agenda Item 14 Reaching the unreached at the 73rd session of the World Health Organization Regional Committee for the Western Pacific.
The intervention was on behalf of International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP).
Here is the link to my recorded version
Here is my speech
Honourable Chair, Distinguished Delegates of States Parties, and Civil Society
My name is Professor Sharynne McLeod from Charles Sturt University in Australia. I am a speech-language pathologist and am speaking as the representative of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP).
The mission of the IALP is to improve the quality of life of individuals with disorders of communication, speech, language, voice, hearing, and swallowing.
Communication disability is an invisible disability. However, there is a high prevalence. • 7.6% of children start school with a developmental language disorder. A further 2% start school with language disorder associated with another condition such as speech sound disorder, cerebral palsy or autism. • 5% of individuals will stutter sometime in their life. 1% will stutter most of their lives. • 33% of those who have a stroke will have long-term difficulty with communicating and some will have difficulty swallowing. • More than 50% of people with neurological difficulties (e.g., multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease) are likely to become unintelligible which is often mistaken as being drunk and restricts many aspects of life.
The International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders is committed to the World Health Organization’s goal of reaching the unreached. In fact, to celebrate its 100th anniversary, IALP has published a book titled “The Unserved – Addressing the needs of those with communication disorders”. This 142-page book is free on the IALP website (https://ialpasoc.info/publication/)
“Many of the unserved and underserved have disorders of speech, language, voice, hearing and communication. They include those in low- and middle-income countries who lack essential health and education services as well as migrants, refugees and others … in high-income countries.” (Levey & Enderby, 2022, p. 5)
The book “The Unserved” offers strategies to address communication and swallowing disability that affects many areas of everyday life and which are exacerbated by lack of adequate health, education and social services. The book includes examples from across the world for supporting people with communication and swallowing disabilities, including from countries in the Western Pacific (Vietnam, Fiji, China, USA, and Australia).
Members of IALP stand with the World Health Organization in Agenda Item 14 - Reaching the unreached – particularly for those with communication and swallowing disability in order to support and enhance their participation in society.
