What is Speech Pathology?
A Speech Pathologist is an Allied Health Professional who can assess, diagnose, and manage communication disorders including difficulties in the areas of speaking, language, reading, writing, voice, social skills, and stuttering. Speech Pathologists can also assess, diagnose, and manage people with a swallowing disorder.
How can the MND Queensland Speech Pathologist help?
Approximately 30% of people with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) experience speech difficulties as an initial symptom of the disease (e.g., bulbar-onset); however approximately 70% of people with MND who experience initial symptoms of MND in their limbs (e.g., limb-onset) will also experience difficulties at some stage of disease progression.
As MND progresses, the ability to use speech to communicate becomes increasingly difficult, which may in turn impact on participation in activities of daily living and psychosocial wellbeing.
Our Speech Pathologist works with people with MND and their families to maximize communication participation in meaningful activities of daily living to help maintain independence and quality of life with home, work, and community environments. If desired, our Speech Pathologist is able to provide education and training on a variety of alternative and augmentative communication devices, and voice banking to aid communication participation.
The majority of people with MND will experience difficulties with eating and/or drinking (dysphagia) at some point during disease progression, which has been linked to a reduced quality of life for people with MND. Our Speech Pathologist will work with people with MND to develop skills and strategies needed to adjust and adapt to any swallowing difficulties, provide advice on food and fluid consistencies, and work with dietitians on nutrition management.
Voice Banking Clinic
As an extension of our Speech Pathology Service, MND Queensland has introduced a Voice Banking Clinic and you can find out more information about this service by clicking here.
Who can access Speech Pathology Services from MND Queensland?
MND Speech Pathology services are available to anyone with MND in South- East Queensland. We will explore the option of regional visits in the near future if our clients request this support.