Collaboration

ASHA's Code of Ethics governs the practice of Speech Language Pathologists and other care providers in the field of communication sciences and disorders. ASHA requires respectful, family centered care and professionalism in all settings and situations. SLP requires team care and open communication between all care providers, including SLPs, doctors, ENTs, audiologists, family members, etc. It is crucial that SLPs collaborate with families and their patients to best meet their needs and serve them to the fullest extent. Families serve as great sources of information and can provide practitioners with great insight into how to best treat their patients. By including families in therapy and shared decision making, families will be empowered and better able to support their children with communication disorders. This is important as families play a large role in a child's development and therapy. Families will affect the patient, just as the patient will affect the family. As a future SLP I must realize that I will not work with just patients with communication or feeding disorders, but also with their entire families and many other professionals as well. I must be aware of the fact that disorders and disabilities add a great deal of stress and challenges and must be sensitive to these challenges and stressors. It is my responsibility as a future SLP to address and treat communication disorders in the most effective manner while always serving as a resource to my patients and their families. My hope is to always include families in therapy and make them feel welcome and respected by collaborating often and always maintaining open lines of communication. My ultimate goal to ensure that everyone has access to effective communication. ASHA's Code of Ethics can be found at http://www.asha.org/docs/html/ET2010-00309.html.