Be mindful and don’t take things at face value

“Recommended by experts!”

Just because a therapy claim is made by an expert or authority, you cannot be sure that it is trustworthy.

Trust in your colleagues and seniors is important, but it isn’t enough to make a judgement about how effective an intervention is.

Just like everyone else, SLTs, researchers, and service users may disagree about the effects of therapies. This may be because what they say is not based on a systematic review of fair comparisons of therapies.

People should not decide how trustworthy a claim is based only on who made the claim or how experienced, well known, or “expert” they are; or where the claim was made. Claims that are not based on fair comparisons can be found in sources that are well-respected as well as ones that are not.

BEWARE of treatment claims like “recommended by experts” or “SLTs say”.

REMEMBER: Trust in your expert SLT colleagues is important, but it isn’t enough to make a judgement about how effective an intervention is. Just because a treatment claim is made by an expert or authority, or comes from a well-respected source, you cannot be sure that it is trustworthy unless it is clearly based on a systematic review of fair comparisons.