Why EPIC?
Throughout the world, many groups of people continue to struggle to access basic needs like food, sanitation, housing, education, and health care. We understand these inequities as influenced by social, cultural, linguistic, economic, historical and political factors which create a context for marginalisation. We need to ask ourselves as speech-language therapists and audiologists: How are we contributing to addressing social inequalities that impact and affect communication?
In the professions of speech-language pathology and audiology, the majority of our professional work uses a personal, one-to-one model of care. The challenge with such a model is the limited number of SLT/As to meet the need. We need to question: are our individualised models of care the best way to provide communication supports in the context of inadequate numbers of service providers? Are there other ways in which we could work?
EPIC practices seek alternative approaches to our work as speech-language pathologists and audiologists to the health care model that continues to dominate how we deliver services throughout the world.
"EPIC provides a framework to rethink and to transform clinical practices especially (but not only) for underserved populations.” (Pillay & Kathard, 2018)