Ben Mondelaers (1995 - 1999) :

Dear Mrs President, dear colleagues,

In Europe we live in the western society, a society characterized by a more and more important role of spoken and written communication. And especially in this field speech and language therapists function as important caregivers to persons with difficulties in this matter. American studies on important professions in the 21^st century indicate again and again that speech and language therapy will become one of the very important and esteemed professions in the United States in the coming decades. And I can’t think of any good and real arguments why this would not be the same in the countries of the European Union. Because of this expectation the place, functioning and importance of CPLOL, as the representative of the European speech and language therapists, can only grow and increase in the next twenty years. It was, is and will be important that CPLOL takes and retains the lead in joining and in representing the national associations of speech and language therapists. In this way CPLOL has to continue paving the way instead of reacting to statements of other bodies.

There are three projects, among others, which have been very important issues in the history of CPLOL, also during my presidency. The first one is the importance of a professional profile of the speech and language therapist or logopedist in the European Union. The origin of our profession was quite different in a lot of European countries. In some the origin of our profession was based on problems with the functioning of the voice or the singing voice, in other countries it was started by the treatment of articulation disorders, in my country the origin was the education of the deaf and in some others it was based on language disorders, spoken as well as written. This means that the setting up of a European profile of the speech and language therapy or logopaedics was not so simple. On the other hand the fundamental idea that our profession had so many roots and aspects was and is a unique opportunity to set up a professional profile which joins all these different aspects and emphases. In the past decades and today there were and are so many new developments and new insights in the fields of the pathology of speech, language, voice, hearing, swallowing and mouth behaviours that have to be incorporated in the functioning of speech and language therapists or logopedists. If we look to all research, which is going on in the field of the functioning of the brains, we can expect that in the future a lot of new insights and consequences for our profession will follow. Psycholinguistics for instance has a history of only half a century, and this science was the basis in developing patholinguistics, which is an important reference frame for our functioning. Many fundamental disciplines are doing research in the fields where we are the professionals who have to do with persons with disabilities and handicaps in these fields. On the one hand we have to find the ways to incorporate these new insights and findings in our daily functioning, while on the other hand we see that speech and language therapists or logopedists are achieving, more and more, an own professional responsibility in the clinical decision process, which has an important impact on the patient’s care.

Another important aspect, which has been an important issue for all executive committees, was the organisation of European congresses for speech and language therapists or logopedists. It was, is and will be so important that the professionals meet each other and share their knowledge and insights. CPLOL organised congresses in Athens, Antwerp, Lisbon, Paris, Edinburgh and Berlin. In organising these congresses CPLOL created a unique opportunity for all EU colleagues to participate and to exchange insights and current knowledge in the field of the pathology we are dealing with. We have the mission to deliver the best therapies and the best practises to our patients so that they benefit most of our services. This means that CPLOL has to be a platform which offers the possibility to all EU speech and language therapists or logopedists to discuss the state of the art in our profession and to ameliorate these best practises based on scientific research and to bring forward new insights or suggestions for new research. Maybe the European Union, convinced by the importance of our profession for the daily functioning of our patients, will offer financial means for future research in our professional field, by granting an important amount for future research. If we agree that spoken and written communication is the key word in present and future generations we can understand that research in this field is of huge importance to the European Union society.

At the moment we know prevention is an important aspect in health services. That’s why CPLOL concluded that prevention was and is one of the key aspects in the functioning of speech and language therapists or logopedists. There are so many problems in the field of our profession, which can be prevented by instructing the parents or their entourage. As we know prevention wasn’t a hot issue in every country, sometimes it seemed that cure was more important than prevention, but we are all convinced that well thought-out prevention is far cheaper than cure. The poster on language development, developed by CPLOL and translated in most of the EU languages, is one of the examples of a successful operation. Perhaps many successors will see the light in the coming years.

When we look back to the 20 past years of CPLOL and to all achievements of CPLOL in that time we can be sure that the next 20 years will generate an even more extensive list of realizations, activities and intentions. I wish CPLOL are the stimulating engine of the European speech and language therapy or logopaedics now and in the future. Once again I would like to congratulate CPLOL on the important landmark of its 20^th anniversary and I hope a long and successful future will follow.

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