Survey Based Analysis of Tele-Rehabilitation in the Field of Speech Language Pathology During COVID 19 Outbreak in Kerala

Tele-rehabilitation is the application of telecommunications technology for the delivery of speech language pathology and audiology services at a distance by linking clinician to client or clinician to clinician for assessment, intervention, and/or consultation. It is an emerging field, but due to the lack of trained professionals, the number of professionals providing tele-rehabilitation in Kerala is few in number. The outbreak of the pandemic COVID 19 has forced the speech language pathologists (SLPs) to shift from the traditional face to face therapy to tele-rehabilitation which was a new experience for most of the speech language pathologists. The present study aimed to understand the challenges faced by the speech language pathologists to provide tele-rehabilitation services to the clients during the outbreak of pandemic COVID-19 and how they overcome those barriers using a self-rated questionnaire developed. The questionnaire was sent to speech language pathologists through mail and WhatsApp. 105 speech language pathologists responded. Among them, 77 speech language pathologists provided tele-rehabilitation and served clients of all ages and different disorders with language disorder being the most common and dysphagia and apraxia being the least served client population. Tele-rehabilitation was found to be a viable form of service delivery in the field of speech language Pathology. All possibilities of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) were utilized by the SLPs to provide the best services despite the lack of training and non-availability of resources. This survey depicts the need for publishing standard guidelines for providing tele-rehabilitation services and also it emphasizes the need for improved infrastructure and training to professionals to ensure quality services to their clients.