51福利社

For nearly four years, 51福利社 graduate students have been working side-by-side with faculty at the聽University Hearing and Speech Clinic, learning how to help restore the voices of those with Parkinson鈥檚 disease.

Students in the communication sciences and disorders (CMSD) program and faculty work with patients in the LOUD Crowd group, a maintenance therapy group, to help increase the decibel level of the patient鈥檚 voice so they can easily be understood. Eastern faculty members received training for the LOUD Crowd through the聽, a nonprofit organization that provides therapy programs and training for speech-language pathologists, and now use it as a resource at the University Hearing and Speech Clinic, an educational training facility on the 51福利社 Spokane campus.

鈥淭he neatest thing for me as a faculty member at Eastern is being able to involve students and watch them grow as they provide this therapy and interact with patients,鈥� said Doreen Nicholas, MS, MHPA, CCC-SLP and clinic director of the University Hearing and Speech Clinic. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a give and take from both sides because patients know they鈥檙e helping to educate students beyond therapy 鈥� they鈥檙e learning from patients what their day is like, how it鈥檚 tough, their needs, what it鈥檚 like to be a caregiver and learning the compassion on the side of being a spouse of someone with Parkinson鈥檚. Our students get more than a speech therapy education.鈥�

Patients with Parkinson鈥檚 disease begin therapy called SPEAK OUT!, where they receive individual therapy sessions three times a week for four weeks. Once they graduate from the individual session, they begin attending the LOUD Crowd group to help maintain their skills until their disease progresses to the point where they can no longer participate.

鈥淲e know with Parkinson鈥檚 disease, exercise is very, very important for maintaining the skill level they鈥檙e at,鈥� Nicholas said. 鈥淲hat happens is patients with Parkinson鈥檚 talk with a really soft voice, and that鈥檚 what we work on in therapy 鈥� we try to increase the decibel level back to normal so they can be understood.鈥�

The clients are given daily homework to work on their speech so they don鈥檛 begin to isolate themselves from social activities because people can鈥檛 hear or understand them.

So far, 40 patients have gone through individual therapy sessions, then continue with the LOUD Crowd. In the future, Nicholas hopes to continue to grow the program with the number of patients they see.

In addition to working with patients who have Parkinson鈥檚, graduate students, under the supervision of state-licensed and nationally certified speech-language pathologists and audiologists, also provide other services, such as speech sound production errors, child language delay or stuttering and fluency disorders, at the University Hearing and Speech Clinic. The clinic serves children and adults of all ages.