Initiative to Swedish Authorities: ISAD October 22nd 2001
In connection with the release of the Final report from the Swedish project introducing PFSP to Scandinavia, and the International Stuttering Awareness Day ISAD October the 22nd 2001 we made an attendance by courtesy to the Swedish Parliament, commitee for social Affairs. Our target was to initiate a dialogue with politicians in order to create possibilities for People who Stutters to chose by themselves which kind of treatment they desire to attend, through financiation from the Swedish society and tax system. And equality of different therapy programs regarding financiation through our well-fare system. No matter if the treatment is runned by a Speech Pathologist employed in a hospital within a health care district or a Speech Pathologist working in a private clinic.
The participators were Annika Willfors, the former representative of the Swedish Stammerers Association, moreover the initiator of the Swedish project, Ulf Nordström, Flytskaparna (Fluency shapers) and Helena Forne-Wästlund, head of the Swedish Project. We were kindly received by Leif Carlsson, member of parliament. Through him we handed over the final Swedish report to the Ministry of Social Affairs and the parliament. We could enjoy a meeting with fruitful discussions and a nice athmosphere. With this meeting the handicap political mission of Swedish project was handed over to our popularly elected members of Parliament, together with the Federation of Swedish County Councils, Ministry of Social Affairs and Swedish Stammerers Association (SSR) to continue the mission of pushing forward the handicap political decisions of freedom of Choice for People who Stutters, regardless if treatment is provided by the health care authorities or a private clinic.
Pressrelease
The International Stuttering Awareness Day ISAD October the 22 nd.
The International Stuttering Awareness Day has been proclaimed by the Organisations for People who Stutters allover the world. The mission is to pay attention to Stuttering/Stammering as an impairment or a handicap. In this way to increase the understanding of the disorder and work for an open society that takes care of the human rights of PWS for a decent and qualified treatment and health care and that the society efficiently counteract all kinds of discriminating actions.
We who suffers of stuttering are due to our handicap a silent group. As a consequence of this, we have difficulties of making ourselves heard and take advantage of our democratic rights. That leads to a situation where we are disregarded and ignored, both concerning access to treatment and individual preferences for an active individual choice of treatment or therapy.
In Sweden there exists only a few Speech Pathologists working woth stuttering, an overall estimation of some 30-40 Speech-language Pathologists to cover the needs from 60.000 people who stutters. We want to make you pay attention to an alternative way of treatment for stuttering, - Speech training for fluent speech partly with help from computers - that is not accessible at the ordinary health care system: We want to get access to this kind of private treatment regardless in which health care district we actually live.
Contact persons: The community of interest: Flytskaparna