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Canton-Potsdam Hospital employee receives certification in two speech therapy treatments

Posted 5/5/16

POTSDAM -- Canton-Potsdam Hospital’s Luke Freel recently received certification in two speech therapy treatments, coinciding with May as national Better Hearing and Speech Month. LSVT Loud is a …

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Canton-Potsdam Hospital employee receives certification in two speech therapy treatments

Posted

POTSDAM -- Canton-Potsdam Hospital’s Luke Freel recently received certification in two speech therapy treatments, coinciding with May as national Better Hearing and Speech Month.

LSVT Loud is a therapy targeted primarily at those with Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions, focusing on improving functional speech through exaggerated volume, without shouting.

Respiration, laryngeal and articulatory functions are also improved, according to a press release from CPH.

The hospital is the only provider of LSVT Loud therapy in St. Lawrence County, the release said.

VitalStim Therapy is a new therapy offered at Canton-Potsdam Hospital, designed for those with swallowing disorders, using non-invasive, external electrical stimulation for re-education of the throat muscles involved in swallowing.

Neuromuscular electrical stimulation waves are delivered through external electrodes on the throat, re-educating throat muscles to improve swallowing, the release said.

Patients experience results typically in six to twenty daily sessions of sixty minutes.

In addition to these therapies, CPH also performs clinical swallow examinations, a first step assessment of swallowing disorders performed at bedside by a speech-language pathologist, as well as modified barium swallow evaluations.

These evaluations are the gold standard for evaluation of swallowing functions performed in collaboration with a radiologist, and are instrumental in determining pharyngeal dysphagia as well as the specific muscular-physiologic factors causing the dysphagia, the release said.

For more information call the department of physical rehabilitation at 261-5460.