Danger of assumptions

“Old is better!”

Just because an approach has been used by speech and language therapists for a long time or by many people, it does not mean that it helps or that it is safe.

People often believe that therapies that have been used for a long time or by many people must work and must be safe. But that’s often not the case.

For example, some healthcare professionals automatically give people with swallowing difficulties thickener in their drinks. They believe that it will help, because it has been used by so many people for so long. However, thickener doesn’t always help swallowing problems. In fact it can make it worse, and make swallowing more difficult or dangerous.

BEWARE of claims that a treatment works or is safe just because it has been used for a long time or used by a lot of people.

REMEMBER: Think about whether the treatment has been tested in fair comparisons.