DiagnosTEX April 2017 Newsletter
Clinical Café Newsletter
April 2017
Happy Spring& Happy Easter
By: Ronda Polansky M.S. CCC-SLP
Monthly Motivator:
April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.—William Shakespeare
MAY is Better Speech and Hearing Month – Be prepared next month! This annual event provides opportunities to raise awareness about communication disorders and to promote treatment that can improve the quality of life for those who experience problems with speaking, understanding, or hearing. ASHA has many resources to help you celebrate BHSM every day. www.asha.org . Some good educational material to share can also be found in the booklet ABOVE and BEYOND.
ABOVE and BEYOND By: Ronda Polansky M.S. CCC-SLP – Patient, Caregiver, and Healthcare Professional Educational Reference Sheets and Handouts for Effective Dysphagia Rehabilitation. Over 30 handouts on specific disorders in dysphagia in ONE location to use in your practice, plus a resource section for SLP’s on cranial nerve testing, pharyngeal exercises, and treatment techniques. A need to have booklet in your therapy bag!! Cost: $40.00. (plus S&H). Discounted to $30.00 for MBSH Month. Call us and we will get one out to you!
DVD – What You Can Not See at Bedside– Copies of MBSS studies for education of staff and families on various disorders and clear episodes of penetrations and aspirations. Cost – $40.00 (plus S & H). Discounted to $30.00 for MBSH Month. Great educational tool for anyone! This is the same videos we presented at TSHA.
ASHA has some resources to celebrate too – The BHSM store offers an extensive product line with fun new items as well as returning favorites, all featuring the 2017 tagline. Educate! – ASHA has free resources to help boost public awareness. They include press templates, coloring pages, bookmarks, social media images, and more. To download these materials, visit the Better Hearing & Speech Month 2017 webpage. This year, there will be four different weekly themes so everyone can get involved. Check the site regularly for new materials and information.
APRIL CEU Opportunities:
DiagnosTEX CEU course coming in MAY for Better Speech and Hearing Month on Friday May 5, 2017.
Vital Signs – Resuscitating Law, Ethics and Morality in Dysphagia Evaluation and Treatment
REGISTRATION FORM INCLUDED in this newsletter. Hope to see you there!
Questions on SLP writing diet and MBSS orders
There is no ASHA policy prohibiting an SLP from writing such orders, but care must be taken to ensure that the order is correct and that it is clear that the SLP is not the one requesting the dietary restrictions, which falls outside the SLP’s scope of practice.
For Medicare, practitioners include physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners, not speech-language pathologists. It is not clear how these regulations are being interpreted and enforced, but clinicians should be aware of this issue when considering policies regarding writing diet and MBSS orders.
Care home develops ‘realistic’ pureed meals
We all know what the typical facility puree meals look like, scoops of colored balls with no taste. Visual appearance is EVERYTHING when eating something. Ever thought how we get attracted to the mere sight of freshly cooked sizzling hot chocolate brownie, the colorful exotic vegetable salad or a vanilla ice cream garnished with a generous spread of nuts and chocolate chips.Is it just the bold and colorful presentation of food which attracts us to it, or is it the taste and health benefits of it? Our eyesight triggers our taste buds along with our other senses of touch, taste, smell and even hearing to an extent (think of the sound of sausages sizzling in the pan). Furthermore, when your eyes see a plate of food in front of you and you choose not to eat it, chances are you’re avoiding it because of past experience. Our eyes are incredible organs, sending messages to our brain which are stored for some time after. We do eat with our eyes and first impressions (of a food) are everlasting. Visual appeal does play an important part. A company which runs care homes in the Midlands has come up with an idea to ensure they get proper nutrition by serving pureed food – which looks like a meal. This is not hard, just plain smart! Check it out at http://www.itv.com/news/central/update/2017-03-16/report-realistic-pureed-food-which-looks-like-a-meal/
Share with patients and family – The National Foundation of Swallowing Disorders is excited to announce its Online Swallowing Support Group. Anyone can join the Support Group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NFOSDSwallowingSupportGroup/
It is estimated that 560 million people worldwide suffer from a swallowing disorder. While the National Foundation of Swallowing Disorders has helped to establish several local swallowing support groups, we recognize that this is not enough. Therefore, we have created an online, interactive support group using Facebook. This group is open to all those impacted by swallowing disorders including patients, family members, caregivers, and friends as a way to easily share your stories, resources, questions, answers, and support with others. Clinicians are welcome to join this group, however, because this is an NFOSD-sponsored group, we kindly ask that they do not share medical advice. We understand that each individual is different — the cause of a swallowing disorder, the signs and symptoms, and the effect of the disorder on the individual can vary greatly. We welcome the expertise, resources, and support that clinicians may be able to offer to others in this group. If you have questions about how to join the group, please email us at info@nfosd.com.
Sincerely,
The NFOSD Team
www.nfosd.org