[ Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Erika Shira
Date: 12 Oct 2008
Time: 20:51:35 -0500
Remote Name: 66.92.76.147
Ah, ok, thanks. Yes, that clears it up. Keep in mind though that there are a number of communication disorders where there's overlap between it being a speech/language disorder and a psych disorder. For instance, "vocal tic disorder," "expressive language disorder," and "phonological disorder" are in the DSM, which means it's within my scope of practice as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Massachusetts to diagnose and treat people with those disorders. Depending on a number of factors, I may or may not refer for cotreat. The music therapy Scope of Practice from the CBMT overlaps considerably with other disciplines. It lists areas such as motor skills and language skills as areas we assess in everyone we see and will treat when appropriate. It also requires that we refer and seek consultation as appropriate. I think that what is really important is that we don't represent ourselves as having training we don't and that we don't try to work with someone by ourselves when we're running into issues that we don't have the training to address. I personally think it's really important to ensure that clients and their families are informed about the options that are out there in terms of other providers who may be helpful. Even in my work with teens who are mildly on the spectrum, where most of what I'm doing is pure psych work with a little bit of social skills and pragmatics work thrown in, I make sure the families know that a SLP has more in-depth training in pragmatics than I do, and could also be helpful. (I hate that this thing won't let me make paragraphs!) I'd say that music therapists are generally really good at collaborating and making sure we're staying within our scope of practice. A lot of the work we do tends to be with folks who other providers won't see or who have made such little progress that most of their services have been cut off, so it's often a non-issue.