Occupational Health

what is the role of the speech therapist?

Abstract

Introduction: Speech therapy has been inserted in Worker’s Health mainly through care practices related to hearing and voice. It is necessary for speech therapy practices to expand in this field, proposing health promotion actions and care for work-related communication disorders, aiming at comprehensive care for workers’ health, and thus detaching from essentially care and rehabilitative actions. Objective: The present study proposes to understand the formation of the Speech-Language Pathologist in Occupational Health. Method: This is a quantitative study, an electronic questionnaire was applied to Speech-Language Pathologists who work in Occupational Health Reference Centers (CERESTs) seeking to describe the profile of these professionals, their relationship with work and the practices performed. Results: The study reached 33 speech therapists working in Workers’ Health Reference Centers (CERESTs) from 14 Brazilian states. The study found a group of mostly female professionals, but heterogeneous as to year of graduation, age, year of entry in CEREST and years of service, it was identified that the weekly workloads vary from six to 44 hours and also that speech therapists perform specific nucleus actions, but also internal and external collective activities, intersectional and vigilance actions. Conclusion: It was possible to characterize the profile of speech therapists who work in CERESTs, and also to identify the actions and activities performed, contributing to the understanding of the current state of Occupational Health in Speech Therapy and to the proposition of expanding work in the area.