Overall description / Legal basis

In Poland speech and language therapy is a public service, provided by:
- Primary schools
- Special Schools
- Psycho-Pedagogic Counselling Office
- Hospitals
- Rehabilitation Centres
Speech and language therapists are recognised by the Department of Health (neurologopedist) and by the Department of Education (teacher- logopedist). Speech and language therapists work as liberal profession in private practises too.
Therapy can be prescribed by medical doctors.
 

Organisation of SLT in the country

In the Health Sector the service is regulated by special guidelines for the prescription of SLT of the Ministry of Health. SLT is prescribed by medical doctors (Pediatricians, ENT-doctors, Phoniatricians) according to those guidelines and is carried out by the SLT’s.
At hospitals a newly qualified SLT is supervised by an older and more experienced colleague. He isn’t allowed to diagnose patients on his own but is obliged to work in teams of specialists such as: phoniatrician, neurologist, psychologist.

In the Education Sector Psycho-Pedagogic Counselling Office is responsible for providing decision upon the speech and language diagnosis. Then the therapy take place in schools (kindergarten) or both in school and in the Office. In polish schools usually logopedists work independently with children who suffer from articulation disorders, stuttering, cleft/lip palate anomalies, language disorders and learning disabilities.

Over the last years many speech and language therapists (SLT) have established private practises. Patients who choose to have therapy under private management will have to pay the full cost themselves.

Logopedist in Poland work in Culture sector too: Theatre, Radio, Television, Musical schools, Art schools.
 

A logopedist is qualified to enter the profession after completing:
- a Master’s degree 5-year logopaedic program or
- a course in pedagogy, psychology or linguistic studies during 5 years of study at university and 2 years of postgraduate logopedic studies (600 hours of theory and practice).
 

History, status of the profession and the professionals

The first logopedic institution was founded in 1892 by Wladysaw Oltuszewski. He is called the father of Polish Phoniatrics and the creator of Polish correctional logopedics and its medical basis.

The leading figure in Polish logopedics was Prof. Leon Kaczmarek – the founder and the president of the Polish Logopedic Society- the first polish logopaedics organization founded in 1963, editor-in-chief of “Logopedia” journal and a teacher for several generations of logopedists.

As an autonomous science speech therapy in Poland was created about forty five years ago. First logopaedic programs were organized in university centres in the faculties of Pedagogy and Psychology or Linguistic.

For three years Polish Logopedist Union has bestowed the Certificate of Professional Competence, a special form of recommendation which recognizes a worker’s contribution to the development and expansion of logopedic knowledge.
 

Professional association(s)

1. The oldest and the most numerous logopedic organization is Polish Logopedical Society. The main goals of this Society is popularization of research results in the fields of speech pathology and organizing professional training and meetings.

2. The Polish Logopedist Union is a professional association and a trade union which was created in 1999 and includes about 1000 members. A person may be admitted to membership if he or she is a qualified speech therapist.

The Polish Logopedist Union (PLU) is involved in activities that protect the professional interests of its workers. In relation to this, as a formally recognized professional union, it has the right to review and participate in the creation of legal documents which concern the education, professional development and work conditions of speech therapists.

The PLU creates and reviews educational programs.
It organizes various forms of professional development: training, conferences, etc.
Through its website as well as magazine Logopedia, it popularizes specialist knowledge of the discipline and draws attention to subjects and problems related to speech therapy.
The PLU recommends teaching aids and therapeutic tools.

One of the bigger campaign of PLU is the Free Diagnosis Day Campaign which take place every year.
The aims of this campaign are:
- facilitation of the access to the professional diagnosis for the individuals with speech troubles
- propagation of the knowledge of the speech therapy and creation of the conditions to quick and suitable consultation, information and diagnosis
- help for the interested individuals in the solution of the speech problems

The Polish Logopedist Union is formally recognised by the government of Poland as a trade union. The government is obliged to consult all new laws with the trade unions.
Hence the basic expression of this recognition is the participation of organization representatives in meetings with The Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health, where the most important decisions are made.
 

For further information the links below may be of interest.

www.logopeda.org.pl

Author / reference    

Piotr Jaworski
Head of Commission of International Relations
Polish Logopedist Union
pjav@op.pl
 

December 2007