The Lanzarote Health Area has launched a Speech Therapy service in Primary Care, which will be carried out at the Titerroy Health Center. This new service, aimed at Pediatric patients, will serve the minors of the island who have language and swallowing disorders.
Outpatient speech therapy rehabilitation is provided exclusively at the Titerroy Health Center by a new professional who attends to minors referred from the hospital consultation of Pediatrics and Otorhinolaryngology. This new Speech Therapy service tries to prevent, evaluate and diagnose difficulties in communication and language, as well as treat alterations of the voice, speech, hearing or swallowing of the little ones, to intervene in them.
Until now, all speech therapy care on the island had been carried out through concerted centers. Thus, the Management of the Health Area celebrates this first step so that at least a part of this care is provided in the health center.
According to the Ministry of Health, the referral protocol remains the same. From the moment that Primary Care pediatricians detect this type of difficulty in minors, they refer them to the hospital Pediatric consultation for language and swallowing disorders, where a specialized pediatrician assesses the patient and determines if they should undergo speech therapy rehabilitation.
The new service implemented at the Titerroy Health Center caters to the needs of about 60 minors who have alterations and articulatory difficulties, of the qualities of the voice and problems related to the intake and swallowing of food. Rehabilitation takes place from Monday to Friday in the afternoon, and during that time an average of 10 patients are treated each day, with a wide age range from 2 and a half years to 14.
The initiative launched seeks to reduce waiting times among pediatric patients in the Lanzarote Health Area, although the agreement with therapeutic centers is maintained to cover the speech therapy rehabilitation of all users, adults and children, while "progress continues to be made in care in health centers," they say from Health.
