聽語治療人力政策建言

聽語專業人員是指聽力師和語言治療師。主要的服務內容是對聽覺障礙和語言障礙病患進行評估、治療、復健、諮詢及研究，以改善其語言及聽覺能力，並增進與他人溝通效果。聽語專業人員服務範圍極其廣泛，包括自新生兒至老年人因中風、腦傷、腦性麻痺、智能不足、老年及先天性聽障、唇顎裂、喉癌、聲帶結節、帕金森氏症、失智症等原因造成語言理解及語言表達困難、語言發展遲緩、發音不清、口吃、嗓音沙啞、吞嚥困難、讀寫困難等。在醫療團隊中可協助提昇病患照顧品質，改善疾病症狀。目前台灣聽語障礙人口大約二百五十萬人，需要聽語專業人員約二千與四千人提供服務。隨著老年人口數的快速增加，以及全民對早期療育的重視，聽語專業服務量將急速增加。對核人員的需求量將擴展至六千名左右。然而，目前台灣聽語專業人員僅三百六十九名，與實際需求量相差約一千八百至六千三百名；且聽語專業人員數與人口數之比率僅及聽語先進國家十五至二十分之一。雖然有中山醫學院語言治療及聽力學系，以及台北護理學院聽語障礙科學研究所兩所學校負責聽語專業人員培訓工作，然而每年培訓人數不足以滿足市場需求。加上聽語專業人員證照制度尚未建立，其專業資格及專業地位未獲得規範，影響學校設立聽語治療系所的意願，以及聽語專業人員工作持久性。此外，由於健保對於聽語治療給付偏低，使得許多醫院在成本考量下，不願設置合理的專業人員數量，以致造成大量聽語障礙病患堆積等候，而無法得到適切的服務。是故，為了培養人才以及留住人才，建立聽語專業人員證照制度極為必須且極為迫切。在此制度下鼓勵各大學廣設聽語障礙系所，定期培養聽語專業人員。同時研擬合理的聽語治療健保給付方式，聘用合理數量的聽語專業人員，以落實聽語治療服務。

關鍵字

語言治療師；聽力師；語言障礙；聽覺障礙；聽語治療

並列摘要

Speech pathologists and audiologists are speech and hearing professionals. The major services of these professionals are assessment, treatment, consultation, and study of speech and hearing disorders in order to improve communication function. A variety of populations from neonates to geriatrics need speech and hearing services. The populations include those who suffered from comprehension and expression difficulties, articulation disorder, fluency disorder, voice problem, and swallowing difficulty because of stroke, head injury, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, hearing impairment, cleft palate, laryngeal cancer, vocal nodules, Parkinson's disease, dementia etc. As a medical team member, t hearing professionals can help to decrease speech and hearing symptoms and increase quality. The speech and hearing populations in Taiwan approximate 2.5 millions. This amount of populations needs about 2,000 to 4,000 speech and hearing professionals for services. Because of the fast increase of geriatric populations and the development of early intervention program in Taiwan, the need for the professionals will expand to 6,000 in the near future. In fact, the total number of speech and hearing professionals in Taiwan are only 369, which are about 1,800 to 6,300 away from actual need. The ratio of speech and hearing professionals to total populations in Taiwan is about 1.6, which is one fifteenth to one twentieth of the ratio to other countries. Although, there are two schools, Chun-Shan Medical University and National Taipei College of Nursing, in Taiwan have speech and hearing program to prepare the professionals, the total number of students into market each year from these schools is not enough for the actual need. Besides, the lack of licensure in speech pathology and audiology make it difficult to qualify the professionals and therefore discourage the university to establish the speech and hearing program in schools. Moreover, the low insurance payment to speech and hearing services makes hospital cutting off the speech and hearing professionals to a minimal level, resulting in a long waiting list for speech and hearing clients. Therefore, the most important issue for speech and hearing manpower planning is to establish licensure in speech pathology and audiology. This policy could encourage university to prepare speech and hearing professionals to meet the market need. Besides, to set up a reasonable insurance payment policy for speech and hearing services could increase the efficiency of speech and hearing services.