KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 — Malaysia is facing a shortage of speech therapists, as the level of awareness on the subject and profession is still low among the younger generation.

According to Dr Hasherah Mohd Ibrahim of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), a study conducted by the university found that youths or students preferred other health professions such as medicine, dentistry and pharmacy, over speech science.

"In general, it is estimated that five to 10 per cent of the population worldwide suffers from speech related problems, and if this percentage is used in Malaysia, about 2.8 million people are suffering from speech problems which require the services of a speech therapist,” she told Bernama.

The School of Rehabilitation Sciences lecturer in UKM’s Faculty of Health Sciences said, however, there were only 300 speech therapists in Malaysia currently, and of the total, 58 served in government hospitals, while the rest worked in private hospitals, or non-governmental organisations such as the National Stroke Association of Malaysia (NASAM).

She said the number was very small compared to other rehabilitation professions such as occupational therapists, with 649 people, and physiotherapists (807).

Moreover, she said Malaysia had a ratio of one speech therapist per 100,000 of the population (1:100,000) which was far behind other countries like the United States, which had a ratio of 41:100,000.

"In Singapore, each hospital has between seven to 12 speech therapists, but in Malaysia, only large hospitals have speech therapists, and only two or three hospitals have more than one speech therapist, so the numbers are definitely not enough,” she said.

Dr Hasherah said individuals who faced communication problems comprised those from all categories and age groups including children with autism and Down Syndrome, as well as adults who had suffered a stroke.

Therefore, she urged the relevant parties including the government to implement strategies to provide more information about the different professions under Health Sciences to attract more youth to further their studies in this field.

She said that so far only two local universities offered speech therapy programmes, namely UKM since 1995, and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) since 2000.

A total of 200 students have graduated under the Speech Science Programme in UKM as of 2014, where 70 per cent of them work for the Ministry of Health, 15 per cent in private hospitals and clinics, 10 per cent in universities, and five per cent were still working overseas.

She said each year UKM only received about 20 to 25 new students for the Speech Science programme, and there were currently 80 students pursuing the programme.

Therefore, she said there was a very bright prospect for students to pursue the field of speech therapy in the country, as it would guarantee a high rate of employment following the growing demand for the profession. — Bernama