Where There Is No SLP - Speech Strategies (Fifth in a Series)

What can you do, if your home health patient doesn't have speech therapy - but isn't using functional speech? Problems with speech skills can make a patient less effective for meeting needs, sharing information, maintaining social closesness, and observing the conversation rules of her/his community. Whether the patient is challenged for using speech communication, preventing long - term effects of challenges to a patient's speech status is a worthy goal of home health intervention. Where there is no SLP, what can you do help the patient to function best to meet her/his language needs?

Some of the strategies that are used for a patient with hearing loss or cognitive impairment, will also be helpful in working with a person having speech difficulties. Maintain eye contact; minimize background noise; keep the style of conversation simple; confirm what you have heard from the patient. Technology has made participation in daily living easier than ever for speech impaired persons. You can write, text, spell out a message on a low - tech communication board, or compose a 10 - minute speech that can be spoken electronically. Advocate for your patient as you can - not only with the family and caregivers, but also in the patient's community.