Practitioners speak out

Most of our colleagues report that the recession has caused them to alter the way they have been providing services on a day-to-day basis. Even though changes, cutbacks, and concessions have been made, our professions have, for the most part, been resilient and have been spared the massive layoffs and salary cuts seen in other sectors of the workforce. In fact, given our colleagues' comments, our professions seem to have fared well in what have been gloomy times for many other industries and careers. The number of vacant positions far exceeded the number of people seeking positions at the 1992 ASHA convention (many report position vacancies that have gone unfilled for some time); salaries appear to be keeping up with or in some cases even exceeding inflation; and the number of clients who need us keeps growing. No one knows what lies ahead. We do know that our professions survived the recession. In the years ahead we will be preparing the groundwork for the practice of the professions in the next century. It will be a time of change in the delivery of care. We will be required to be as creative or even more creative than we have been.