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We are discussing the biggest challenges that are currently holding back the field of speech-language pathology. We present the issues with facts and invite you to be a part of joining our movement to make things better, one conversation at a time. Let's fix SLP!
Hosted by Jeanette Benigas, PhD, SLP
Megan Berg 0:00
Hi everyone. I'm Megan Berg
Jeanette Benigas 0:02
and I'm Dr. Jeanette Venegas.
Megan Berg 0:04
And we are here to fix SLP.
Jeanette Benigas 0:06
We are discussing the biggest challenges that are currently holding back the field of speech language pathology.
Megan Berg 0:12
We present the issues with facts and invite you to be part of joining our movement to make things better one conversation at a time.
Jeanette Benigas 0:19
Let's fix SLP.
My fearless fixers Welcome back. This is Jeanette. This is episode 11. And we are so excited just a few days ago, we found out that we were number 94 on the USA, business careers category on Apple podcasts. And we kind of blasted it everywhere because we were so excited. And that caused a whole bunch of people to listen to episodes and more episodes. And now we're number 50. Congratulations, Megan. Yay. It's kind of an exciting thing just to see your see our little icon on a list. And you know, just fun to celebrate that. So what we'd really like for you to do, we never have asked this before on the podcast, but we would absolutely love it. If you could go right now hit pause, go leave us a five star review. Wherever you're listening, we don't want four we don't want three we want buys a five star review. And also if you could write a review about what you're loving about what we're doing for the SLP community and what we're doing maybe for you personally or your state or, or what you've seen happening, because all of those things will help improve our visibility, whether we're on a list or not, people really aren't looking at lists, right? But, but people are looking at ratings and reviews. And that will bump us up in suggestions. And when people are searching. And part of this movement is getting our name out there and and making sure other SLPs see us because not everybody is on Facebook, not everybody is on Instagram, not everybody is reading the posts that people are suggesting us on. And so we still have about 150,000 More SLPs to reach and through the podcast is a great way to reach that. So please, please, please press pause, go write us a review, go give us that five star rating and then come on back.
Megan Berg 2:41
The written reviews mean a lot. And that does help with the algorithms to bump us up and get us into more ears. So the message that we have to share and the conversations that we're having are ones that you would like many many other SLPs to have because their strength in numbers, then it's that written review that's gonna get us into more ears and in front of more eyes and expand this conversation even more.
Jeanette Benigas 3:07
Yeah. And it makes it an I took a little time once we landed on this list, we took a little time to investigate numbers of SLP colleagues who have well known podcasts and we we were looking at download numbers per episode. And, man, if we could have some of those listen numbers per episode, just think about the changes that could happen in this field. We keep saying over and over Megan and I can't fix stuff for you, we can definitely advocate and help and organize and announce and encourage and dig. But we cannot change all of the things by ourselves. We need everyone's help. And that means more exposure to more people. And so man, if we if we even had 10,000 listens an episode, just think about what that would do to the field of Speech Pathology, it would be amazing. And
Megan Berg 4:08
amazing just because people will be listening to us and like with us. Just amazing that SLPs would be having conversations and we don't necessarily want to dictate where those conversations go. But just the energy where SLPs feel empowered to start to fix things in our field.
Jeanette Benigas 4:29
I can attest that Megan would rather not be in the public eye probably the idea that 1000 listens and episode makes her very uncomfortable. But yeah, that you know, this isn't about us. This is about changing speech language pathology for the entire community and then the trickle down effect of changing things that are changing the way things happen for the people that we serve. Eventually we have other topics that we are going to move on to of things that need fixing. If you're new to listen, you can start Go back to the SLP data initiative that we took part in about 10 months ago. And you can look at the strengths and weaknesses, that five to 7000 SLPs, identified in the field of speech pathology, and we want to talk about some of those things, it's a good place to look and see where you land on some of those topics. So eventually, yes, we are going to move on, but somehow we are still talking about our first topic. So what what's that topic? Again? What are we going to talk about today?
Megan Berg 5:29
We're still unpacking the CCC? Why do so many SLPs feel like we have to have it? Why is there sort of a cultural divide between practicing SLPs and academic SLPs about what the CCC represents? And recently, we posted Instagram to our stories asking people to tell us things that they've learned from this podcast and an academic SLP responded, and in a very patronizing tone said she that she learned that fix SLP doesn't understand the relationship between national certifications, or the national certification in state licensing boards. And so what I was hoping we could do age and just talk about Asha is Asha, a regulatory body does Asha regulate the field of SLP. And therefore, like, I guess I'm assuming what this person was saying is that we don't understand that ashes sets the standard that state licensing boards are expected to follow. That's my assumption. And they are this person is assuming that we just don't understand. The ASHA, in fact, regulates this field.
Jeanette Benigas 6:54
Because we're idiots. We don't understand we have done no research. We have not been hours looking at websites and regulations and asking questions and emailing state boards who don't want to get back with us. We've done none of that we don't we don't understand. But we do we actually do understand. So the first thing I thought was, well, hey, if we're not educated, let's let's get us some education. So I went to the old Internet, and I looked up, what does the American Speech Language and Hearing Association do? This is what I found. The mission of the American Speech Language Hearing Association, Asha is to promote the interests of and provide the highest quality services for for professionals in audiology, speech, language pathology and speech in hearing science, and to advocate for people with communication disabilities. That statement doesn't say anything about regulation. It also doesn't say anything about advocating for speech language pathologists. Interestingly, the statement only says it's advocating for people with communication disabilities.
Megan Berg 8:19
I mean, this is where historically, especially in the case of of Speech Pathology, the association kind of stepped in, in 1925. And then really, in the mid 1960s, to start to define what speech pathology was in it is in like, similar to occupational therapy and physical therapy, we have sort of this odd ball history, it's not like architecture, or it's like, it's very clear what the scope of an architect is like they're designing buildings. But with the therapies, there was a little bit going on in the schools with stuttering and articulation. And then there was a little bit going on with World War One, World War Two with brain injuries, a little bit going on. With the stroke population. There's just like, all these little bits and pieces. And what Asha did was kind of bring it all together under one scope. And like, we don't question that anymore. We don't say like, that's weird. Like, that's weird that somebody working with tracheostomy also has the same job title as somebody who's addressing school based interventions. Like that's not weird at all. Like we don't we don't think anything about it. It just it's, it's kind of, I think, at this point. It's always how it's been. And none of us were alive to see it any other way. And it's very hard for us collectively to envision any other way to do it. It's Oh, because Asha stepped in to fill that role and kind of define the field and define the scope. I think they're perceived as a regulatory body because they're getting to kind of decide what speech language pathologists treat, and where they work and all of that. But really, that's just an association body that's making recommendations for the field. It's not like a hard and fast rule.
Jeanette Benigas 10:28
I'm going to issue a correction, Megan, that he said, None of us were alive to see that. But you aren't on the Facebook group. I mean, all of our Boomer friends
Megan Berg 10:40
who are from 1925. I know not
Jeanette Benigas 10:44
from 1925. But there are definitely some older speech pathologists who we again, welcome into our community who have been around to see what it was like 50 years ago, and we've had some good conversations with these folks, not 1925, but definitely not 100 years ago, but definitely 50 years ago, so
Megan Berg 11:06
years ago would be the 70s. So that would have been around the time of bogus versus Asha, was
Jeanette Benigas 11:12
it that wasn't that was like, That was only like, 20 years ago, Megan? Getting these? Okay, no, you're right. I'm just, it's just one of those things. I wasn't even alive in the 70s. But couldn't be that long ago. That old, I feel like,
Megan Berg 11:28
I feel like taking a turn and we're gonna make some enemies with this. Listen,
Jeanette Benigas 11:34
I have on jeans today that are branded as 90s jeans, I should have just kept my jeans from the 90s started spending money on new ones.
Megan Berg 11:43
Okay, but if you think about the 1970s, that was like 1510 to 15 years into the CCC. And that was just that was like when they were allowing non academic SLPs into Asha. But only if you paid for the certification, like that was the beginning of all of this. And like we've talked about before, like people, I think a lot of people thought it was a good thing, because anybody could just open up a speech therapy practice, regardless of their education or experience, and ACTA brought a much needed legitimacy to the field. And I think that's why historically like those, that's where those historical roots are, and they're so deep. And they're so embedded and entrenched and entangled and everything. And so SLPs just view them as a regulatory body. But Asha doesn't actually have any control over SLPs, other than the ones who choose to pay for their certification. Yep.
Jeanette Benigas 12:42
So we had this, this very friendly, academic SLP tell us, put us in our place through messenger, but also regular clinicians to still believe this. So just today, there's a conversation going on under a post again, fix SLP was tagged. Thank you, everybody. I, I love seeing that. It just makes my heart warm. But there is there's someone who's asking really great questions who legitimately wants to know about fix SLP? And what fix SLP is going to do for the profession? And this particular person said, The problem is, it's regulated. Okay, what was this in reference to the CCC and the CCC in the profession. And the problem is, it's regulated by Asha. And companies feel they have to follow Asha. So while the CCC itself is regulated by ASHA, the profession is not. So I just provided a little education there about that. But there's clinicians who think that still and I think we've touched on this in our posts and on podcast before, but Asha would love for you to believe that they are a regulatory body who gets to say what you do and don't do, but that's not the case.
Megan Berg 14:02
I mean, they do set the scope. Yeah. Even then, how does that all work? So Asha decided like this is the scope of, of speech language pathology, if you're gonna call yourself a speech language pathologist, you can treat Libby literacy and you can treat tricky ostomies.
Jeanette Benigas 14:24
I think probably those are recommendations that then also trickle down to the state level. So I can only speak from where I'm coming from. And where I'm coming from is as a mobile fees owner with extensive knowledge about fees. Not every state allows the speech language pathologist or they may now the last one may have changed but in the past, not every state has allowed speech language pathologist to pass the scope or pass the scope without a doctor present. So those while Asha Uh, I would say that it is in our scope of practice. There are particular states that would say, that's not in your scope of practice, very specifically the state of Pennsylvania. When I was working on my PhD, I spent time in a pit. And I worked multiple hours a week in the lab of Roxanne Diaz gross. And across the hall, she would scope while I was there working in a very dark lab all alone, reading Swalot studies by myself for like hours upon hours. But while she was there, she was working clinic and that she would be there with a doctor, because at that time, Pennsylvania did not allow the speech pathologist to pass the scope. And there were some amazing SLPs that lobbied and advocated to get that change. So now you can pass the scope in Pennsylvania without a doctor present. So I think probably those recommendations are made. But still, that doesn't. That's it's not like Asha, waives its magic wand and says this will be and then it is the state has to adopt those things, and say what we're allowed to do and not allowed to do under our state license.
Megan Berg 16:20
Yeah, I think also, and I don't know this, but this is just from spending so many hours, collecting all the information about Medicaid requirements, I noticed a lot that Medicaid will kind of list out what speech pathology services would be covered. So I think, like a lot of this, it's a blend of insurance and state regulation in Asha recommendations.
Jeanette Benigas 16:48
But even if it's not covered by Medicaid, then we would have the right to provide a service for cash, it doesn't mean we're not allowed to do it. It just means Medicaid or Medicare isn't going to pay for it. And appease he does a lot of that PT does a lot of things that aren't necessarily covered. And then, well, the private practice owners, that's how they make their money, they bill insurance, and then they add on these casually modalities to their service, so they can make more. We don't have a ton of cash only modalities. That's the problem with us, well, we have a lot of problems that we are here to help fix. That's one of the problems is we have not yet found our way to a ton of cash only modalities to boost our income. While Megan is on pause, I told her today, we record this and we make content and we do all of the things that you are seeing us do in our free time, because this isn't our job. So I told her we are living life not running a fortune 500 company so we try to record and meet when Megan has childcare. And she doesn't have childcare this week. So she's got a sweet little girl that is up early from a nap. So she's trying to get her settled. So I'll just I'll keep talking to you.
Megan Berg 18:19
While I was just gonna say thank you. Well, to bring it back to therapists, they have the American Physical Therapy Association, which also, you know, continues to evolve and define the PT scope of practice, and they make recommendations, but they do not sell a national certification that is required for physical therapists. So for people saying we don't understand the relationship between a national certification and state licensing boards, I think what they're saying is that this national certification, that's the standard, and without that standard, the state licensing board wouldn't know what to do, they wouldn't know what to require. And I think again, we can just look to our physical therapy colleagues does a model because they don't have a national certification. APTA OTA, Asha, they could all come up with different requirements or recommendations that state licensing boards could follow. And that does not have to be a $225 fee that's put on the backs of working clinicians year after year after year. It doesn't cost that much money to make a recommendation and communicate that to state license.
Jeanette Benigas 19:41
Right. I think where people start to get confused too, is we have Asha making these recommendations about our scope and trying to help define what we do and who we are and what we advocate for. But then they sell this certification prod product that But that gets confused. And we keep calling it a a twisted web, right? It's it's this twisted web of recommendations and being a membership association, but then also selling this product where the fee is twisted up with the the certification product and the membership. And you know, just this whole confusing thing to people that people don't really understand, at this point, haven't understood, I guess. They're separate. They're separate. And they can. Asha can regulate the CCC because it's their product. Just like if you open your own business, you get to regulate what happens in your business within the law. So Asha gets to do that, they get to do it. And they'll change the requirements of the CCC, or at least getting the CCC based on what the universities and the market are telling them. So we've seen changes every couple years, there are requirements for the CCC change. And that's based on feedback. But that's all they get to regulate. They don't get to regulate what me Jeanette is doing in Ohio, or is doing in Pennsylvania, with my business. Now, if I did something unethical, they could take away my CCC. But if it got to that point, I just resigned. We talked about that the last episode.
Megan Berg 21:30
And we're going to talk more about like sort of the evidence base quote behind the CCC. And it's the same evidence base, the same survey basically that the Council for academic accreditation uses for the grad school programs. And so there's nothing like unique that is defining the CCC separate from the tests that go on the practice or the questions that go on the practice test and the requirements to finish your SLP degree. And so again, for like the 100th time, because apparently we're not making this clear. Like the CCC is a one time training milestone. It's not ethically I mean, this is what it's sold as but it's not ethically a full scope, certification across the entire scope of speech language pathology, it doesn't guarantee that somebody could go work one day in the schools, and then the next day in the hospital, and the next day in home health and like have all of the skills for that without any assurance that actual specific training has been provided. And so where was I going with this? Or where did I come from this like? Well, like paying $225 a year like it's, it's just completely worthless, but because the certification has blown up to be like the thing that defines a good quote, good speech language pathologists and regulates, quote regulates the field, that we all have to have the certification and like, we don't question that it's odd that we're having to pay to reinstate it every year, when it was just a one time a little costained. That does that,
Jeanette Benigas 23:23
like this is a good good place for me to insert that I got we've mentioned on our social I think that I have been back and forth with Tobii Dynavox, about their requirement that someone with the CCC sign reports for AAC devices for for evaluations. And I am still back and forth with them. But the response that I got to my most recent email, it was almost like they they copied and pasted without full understanding. And again, this is what this is what they told me. Well Asha defines the CCC certificate as the CCC SLP demonstrates to patients, employers and organizations that you are committed beyond the basic requirements for the state licensure in the field of SLP. Okay, great. I'm, I'm, I'm pleased that ASHA has defined that for you Tobii Dynavox. But that is not the regulation that comes from Medicare and Medicaid. Those are different things. So just because Asha says that, you know, this is this is us being committed and you've heard me rant about this already. If you've been listening from the beginning, Asha says we're committed beyond that does not define my ability to do an AAC evaluation and sign it right. So that that recommendation, that definition is not a regulation. That doesn't mean I have To have the SEC state to do the job. And so they did give me more. But the problem is they didn't give me links to regulations. And so I don't know if their response is based on the SLP rumor mill and all of the misinformation that we are trying to undo. Is that where their policy comes from? Or is it from actual regulation? So it's not, we have to dig into that further. I've invited them to a conversation, hopefully they decide to join because that would having a conversation with them and hashing this out is, I think, the best way to do this. But if they don't want to, we'll come to you guys. And we will. We'll dig in together.
Megan Berg 25:49
I mean, Medicare is regulated at the federal level. So Medicare does not require the CCC to Bill period. And that's a very clean cut conversation, because it's not, it's not left up to left up to the states, like Medicaid is. And I don't know the whole history of it. But I'm sure there's just some crazy story about how it turned out that Medicaid is regulated by each individual state. But there are a handful of states with eight states that require the CCC to bill Medicaid. So it would be those states that are required to have the CCC to bill for an AAC evaluation. But like I have my CCC right now, not for much longer. But I have it right now. And I should not be completing an AAC evaluation. I don't
Jeanette Benigas 26:36
know i i Could I literally teach it. But if I let my CCC go Tobii Dynavox is saying and by the way, pranky Romania is saying the same thing. I just have not yet been able to connect with them only with the person who came to speak in my class yesterday was the beginning of the conversation. But if I were to let my CCC go as I am never going to call myself an AAC expert. But I do have decent knowledge. If I let the CCC go today, then I wouldn't be able to assign any value, at least with Tobii, DynaVox and PRC. But what they are saying they did say in this email. The CCC is a Medicare requirement for the CCC evaluation.
Megan Berg 27:18
You said for the CCC evaluation, but you meant they Yeah, I'm
Jeanette Benigas 27:23
sorry, all these letters.
Megan Berg 27:27
It's not because I emailed CMS and I asked them very specifically and they said it's not so right.
Jeanette Benigas 27:34
Well, very specifically if it was required to to bill Medicare as a speech pathologist, but they're saying the CEC. Okay, here's the here's what they wrote. I'll just read it. Obtaining a speech generating device insurance requirements, our CCC is required to sign an SLP evaluation for Medicare to obtain a speech generating device for a patient answer. Yes, si si C's are a Medicare requirement for the SLP evaluation. A licensed SLP can sign the report, but he or she will need a supervising SLP with the CCCs to sign the report as well. So we may need to reach back out to Medicare to confirm that or deny that. But again, there was no link to any regulation and anything that they sent to me. And so that's where the problem lies. Hopefully they'll jump back in and say yeah, let's talk about it. But they might not want to
Megan Berg 28:42
psu.edu that Penn State University. Yeah, yeah. They have this thing that has information about device coverage. And they say what a speech pathologist is they say speech language pathologists are licensed health professionals educated at the graduate level and the study of human communication, IT development in its disorders. The SLP must hold a clinical certificate of clinical competence in speech language pathology from the American Speech Language Hearing Association. Is that just Penn State's opinion on the matter? No, no, or that Medicare's opinion? Because the information is so find for Medicare is are these companies just relying on this Penn State website? You know, and that's where they,
Jeanette Benigas 29:30
as an educator, Penn State has a big a big voice in the community. They, I don't know maybe I should
Megan Berg 29:39
go okay, this is at cms.gov/medicare coverage database. A qualified speech language pathologist for program coverage purposes meets one of the following requirements. The education and experience requirements for a CCC granted by ASHA, or meets the educational requirements for certification is in We're in the process of accumulating the supervisory experience required for certification. So let's define define the learner what they're saying is like, no, but they're saying that you're in the process of it. So that would be like a CF. O, to be in the process of it. So what does the education and experience requirements for a CCC? granted by ASHA, to me that means you just have to have the equivalent,
Jeanette Benigas 30:25
right, the equivalent, but they're saying with the order that someone with the CCC still needs to sign it. But what you just said there would mean that in the or you get to sign it yourself if you're a in your professional experience. And your standpoint. Yeah. So Tobii Dynavox themselves said, if you're in your fellowship, you have to have Medicare says you have to have someone sign for you. So they're not clear. We need to we need to go through this.
Megan Berg 30:56
This is what happens when you have large institutions like Penn State, putting these things on their website, or like we talked about the New Jersey speech pathology, state association having inaccurate information on their website. Like there's just so many rumors of your so many layers, where again, we're just assuming that Asha is their regulatory bond.
Jeanette Benigas 31:21
There's something else I want to unpack surrounding this. We have a follower follower, Melanie and I have been having some good conversations via messenger. She has asked some great questions about holding on to her CCC because of endoscopy. So again, back to this endoscopy thing. And since we've started recording, she sent a message. And so before I read her message, Megan, let me ask you, Asha makes the code of ethics? Do we have to follow the code of ethics if we're not a member of Asha?
Megan Berg 32:00
No, we do not. We have to follow the code of ethics of our licensing entity.
Jeanette Benigas 32:07
Does every state have a code of ethics for speech language pathologists? Yes. These are questions I don't actually know the answers to. That's why it's asking. So here's her question. And
Megan Berg 32:19
it might not be specific to speech pathology, it might be like, if you are licensed for any occupation in the state, these are your the ethics that you must abide by. And there are probably going to be somebody were to report an SLP to Asha that they would go by the ASHA code of ethics, and then also provide disciplinary action at the state level.
Jeanette Benigas 32:39
So ASHA has a position statement for endoscopy and for all of our like, pediatric people, I'm sorry, this is very healthy, this could be applied to anything and in any situation where ASHA has written some kind of position statement. So the position statement says it is the official position, not regulation position. It is the official position of the American Speech Language and Hearing Association Asha, that endoscopy is an imaging procedure included within the scope of practice for speech language pathologists, and described in previously established Asha documents and then they go on to list those documents, speech language pathologists with specialized training in flexible nasal endoscopy, rigid oral endoscopy and or strobe sqp. Use these tools for the purpose of evaluating and treating voice disorders of speech, voice, resonance, and swallowing function. So that's the position statement, there is a statement that she pulled out the copied and pasted it. It is required that individuals who practice independently in this area and again, we're talking about endoscopy, hold the Si Si Si in speech language pathology, and abide by the ASHA code of ethics, including principle of ethics to rule B, which states that individuals shall engage in only those aspects of the profession that they are within the scope of their competence, considering their level of education, training and experience. This document was developed by the working group on endoscopy. So what that saying there to me is you have to be competency trained to pass the scope. And we hopefully you all know that. But it's that first piece that's interesting. It's required that individuals who practice independently in the area, hold the CCC and abide by the actual code of ethics. So Asha is saying it's required to pass US GAAP that you have to have the CCC. But to me, that doesn't mean that the state has to require that. No, there's very little regulation in the state of Ohio period. Now the state of Tennessee. There's tons of regulations for passing scope and even training and being a mentor, there's all kinds of regulations. But even if it came, even if this came from a different document, it says, This document was developed by the working group on endoscopy, we'll they don't control what we do either. It's still the state that controls what we do within our state, not the working group on endoscopy, not Asha, the state.
Megan Berg 35:25
Yeah, and I would say this is where our $225 are going is, I mean, there's a lot of money that's spent on making these statements that make it sound like the CCC is the be all end all of everything is lp. And it's not, it's a very basic sign that again, you create, you've completed these introductory training milestones. Other than that, it doesn't mean anything. And so, when Asha continues to put out statement after statement after statement for all different kinds of things, whether it's scoping or whatever, and then this is how you get websites like Penn State, like just eating it. And everybody's just, I mean, we're all like these just little robotic lemmings. And they're like, We need to CCC, we need to see the theme. It's like, do we actually, we actually know what it means and what it stands for. And like, what it's promising people,
Jeanette Benigas 36:19
you know, I will reach out to Penn State because they've been a wonderful resource. So I don't want people to think that they're not doing a great thing. Or they really have some wonderful training things and shout out to Sarah Wallace, who was there who does a ton of education in our field in the area of AAC. You know, they they're doing really great things. So I might touch base with her and ask about these questions, because she may have links to the actual regulations. And then maybe even I suggest, like, Hey, could you put a link to the regulation, where you have that on your website, just so there's transparency, so people understand where these things are actually coming from? I think that would be helpful. So maybe even before I go to PRC and start that conversation, I'll try to connect, connect up with her. But
Megan Berg 37:06
this is like, I mean, I saw that you had commented on somebody's survey, is that right? Or they were doing some research and they wanted in order to participate. They had the CCC and it's like, well, why why do you why and their responses, something like that's how we can ensure that they are all adequately trained. Is that right? Or licensed? Yeah, there's a very simple solution to this is like, instead of asking for somebody's CCC number, they just ask for their state license number. And I think, I think one little thing that we can all be doing every day in our clinical practice is just questioning people. Anytime you see that a CCC is required. Just ask why I'm willing to bet is like not going to be a great response. Other than this whole, like, well, that's how we know that they're qualified as an SLP. And it's like, nope, not be like that. That's what we need to be looking for Licensed SLPs.
Jeanette Benigas 38:04
This was from a university in New York. And that's exactly what I did. Because they are looking to collect some data related to motor speech. And I am also a motor speech professor. So I would be a great person to jump in. And I'm, I'm someone who wants to support the research in our field. And but requirement number one says, are a certified SLP, parentheses, CCC SLP. And given our movement here, I just very nicely asked the question. Can I ask why the CCC is required, your state only requires a state license to practice and bill Medicaid. And that license has equivalent requirements. Other people jumped in with information that wasn't correct. But I will jump down to what the researcher said, because we're recruiting from all over the country and requirements for practice vary widely. The easiest and cleanest way to ensure we're getting licensed SLPs for this study is to require the CCC. This is concerning widely. Yeah, well, I'll read my response. This is consistent with other research in our area as well. This is definitely something we'll think about in the future to be more inclusive, we appreciate your understanding. So a very nice response. And I just I let her know I said all states have state licensure requirements that are equal to or more rigorous than the CCC further, the interstate compact will not require the CCC. Thanks for considering it for the future. The face of SLP is changing and we need to let go of these archaic practices that are tying SLPs down and she didn't respond but she did. Like the post. And so, you know, so many of you are doing so many great things and like jumping in and, and educating. And so this is just another way to do that, like Megan said, question why these requirements are there and ask ask why. And, and their answer was, well, that's how we've always done it. And that's how everyone's doing it. So now the the change we need to see and, and be the first person who just requires the state license. Because then the next person, you know, the person who reads your research and cites it and uses it as a guide, will follow suit. It just takes one person to make the change. One.
Megan Berg 40:39
Yeah, and it's just going to be a slow cultural shift and awakening to the fact that Sure, the CCP was useful. It, it got us to where we are today, we don't need it anymore. We're allowed to change, we're allowed to move forward, we're allowed to function like every other professional group of people in the United States that operates on state licensing boards. And like, we have a voice. And we have a say, in our profession, and the regulations that get passed that have an impact on us. And we're not here waiting for a national association to regulate anything, because they're not a regulatory body. That's not what they're here for. They can recommend things. They can put out statements, they can talk about scope of practice, they can host conferences, they can charge you for CPUs, like they can do a lot of things and like, yeah, they're very representative. And it's one of the most longest standing and historical institutions of this field. But this field is very young. And like, they're not the only Association out there. And they won't be the last and like we shouldn't be allowed to change and we should be allowed to evolve. And we don't need the CCC to demonstrate our competence anymore, because it doesn't demonstrate competency to begin with.
Jeanette Benigas 42:06
Yeah, I think this is a good place to wrap up. Before we do. I just want to mention if you've made it this far, thank you. We are currently scheduling state associations to come on and talk about what their state association is doing, what they've done in the past, what they're doing now, where they'd like to go in the future and why having our fearless fixers as members would be important. We are currently working with 11 states who are either interested in coming on or who have requested more information about what coming on my entail. So if you would love to hear your state, talk about those things for about 15 minutes on our podcast, please let them know, maybe send them a message, go to your state association page and ask the question, send them our way. If you are a listener who is part of your state association, and you all would like to come on every state was invited about a month ago via email, I sent the email to 123 email addresses. I tried for the three P's and the general if I could get it, but it didn't happen in every state. So you might have even missed it. But you can message us at team at fixed SLP. If you're interested in talking with me, I can get with you and give you more details. But we are scheduling that now. We're ready to get going. It's time to have some states on. Remember, if you forgot to pause earlier, as soon as you turn this off, go rate and review us we really appreciate it. So we will be back next week. Thanks for fixing it.
Megan Berg 43:50
Thanks everyone. Bye