Dysphagia on the Web

Most of the information and therapy materials on the web seem to be geared towards peds and school-based practice. I love the Dysphagia Therapy group on Facebook , and the group's creator also has her own blog focusing on dysphagia.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_102453736503465

http://apujo5.blogspot.com/

And since I'm catching up on blogs, here is ASHA's official blog.

http://blog.asha.org/

A Blog a Day in May

In celebration of Better Speech and Hearing Month (BSHM), I am posting about a communication, cognitive or swallowing topic related to adults each day. Cureently, I am out of town visitng relatives, so today's blog post serves to annouce that May is Better Speech and Hearing Month!

http://www.asha.org/bhsm/

Better Speech and Hearing Month Activities for Adults?

May was Better Speech and Hearing Month. I say "was" because, well, May is just about over. I was in the process of a move to GA from VA, so I did not get to plan any BSHM activities or events this year. In 2008 I was fortunate to have a terrific intern at the SNF where I worked. As part of her internship, she developed and presented a family/ caregiver presentation for BSHM entitled "Communicating With Your Elderly Loved One." We presented basic communication tips for caregivers and families (although 99% of our audience were CNAs and nurses from the facility) and offered candy during a Q&A session at the end.

When I Google "BSHM", I get tons of hits for child-centered and school-based activities, but not so many for adults. Understandable, since so many BSHM activities we think up lend themselves to pediatric therapy more than to adult therapy. School-based SLPs can use BSHM coloring activities within speech-language tx group activities and can share presentations about speech-language and hearing with parent and teachers. ASHA has coloring activities, bookmarks, and "The Buds" as well as activity booklets from companies like Progressus. When I worked in the schools, we had classrooms color posters and banners and we had contests. One year, the classroom that came up with the most types of communication, verbal or non-verbal, got a popsicle party. I really did look forward to BSHM activities in the schools!

For the adult-centered therapist, we can of course order pens and notepads and share the news about BSHM with co-workers. We can provide in-services to SNFs, ALFs, home health offices, etc. I know I always like to bring candy or goodies in to the rehab department, to say "thanks" to my colleagues for the work they do in collaborating with me throughout the year. But, sometimes bringing in goodies or passing out pens feels like preaching to the choir. I mean, the OTs, PTs, OTAs and PTAs usually had a pretty good handle on what I did, especially since I had the chance to collaborate and share info about speech-language and swallowing tx with them almost daily.

The ability to order BSHM materials from ASHA varies greatly from facility to facility. One company I worked for let us order pens & notepads from the company site, with the company logo on them; that was nice, but our recipients were of people who already worked for that company! Why "market" company materials to company employees, when BSHM is about promoting speech-language pathology as a discipline? For many of us, ordering ASHA's brochures and supplies just isn't feasible, unless we are willing and able to dig into our own bank accounts.

I also tried to use BSHM as a way to thank the hardworking CNAs and nurses. They are the ones I count on to use the safe swallowing strategies I recommend, to check for correct diet texture and liquid consistency, to try communication strategies with patients. Without them buying in to speech-language and swallowing therapy, our job is so much more difficult.