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From: Kevin Eldridge
Date: 10/22/02
Time: 9:53:33 AM
Remote Name: 63.71.245.9
Jaan, I like the idea of a consumer reports for stuttering treatment (I've subscribed to consumer reports magazine for about 10 years now), but even if one ignored the political issues associated with such a "rating" it seems it would be difficult to do. In part, because there are still so many questions surrounding the disorder itself. To date there is no agreed upon assessment instrument to measure treatment effectiveness (some would measure stuttering, others attitude, others a combination, others something else, so I don't see how one could assess every program out there. We certainly can't let the individual program coordinator assess themselves (the charlatan's all say they have 99% success rates).
That being said, I think that it would be wonderful to have one web site (sponsored by the self help community maybe) that listed every available program and a summary of philosophy of stuttering and the individual treatment, average time in therapy for clients, cost, treatment objectives etc. The problem is, what would one really do with this information. We may be able to communicate globally, but unless one is considering an intensive treatment program, even if one could afford to travel, one can't fly around the globe every week.
SID4's specialty recognition was designed to give potential clients (in the US) some degree of assurance that clinicians meet a minimum competency. I think that a PWS is still tied to treatment locally, so this offers a degree of control on the clients part... they can request a Board certified SLP. Not quite consumer reports, but a start.
Kevin