 | Gentry White is the owner and lead therapist for Southeast Kansas Speech Pathology Services in Pittsburg Kansas. She received her Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Nebraska at Kearney in 1998 and her Master of Arts in Audiology and Speech Sciences degree from Michigan State University in 2001. She has been practicing Speech-Language Pathology in southeast Kansas since moving to Pittsburg in 2001. Gentry resides in the Pittsburg area with her husband and children. She can be contacted through her website www.sekspeech.com or her office phone at 620-232-2990. |
Speech Pathology
2013-03-01 14:50:21
What should I expect from speech pathology after a stroke?
Q-My husband had a stroke and the doctor gave him a referral for speech therapy. What can we expect in the process?
A-The rehabilitation process following a stroke largely depends on what type of stroke that your husband had. The two most common reasons behind a person having a stroke are from a thrombosis and cerebral embolism. This occurs when there has been a block in an artery in the head or the neck area and prevents blood flow to the brain. The other two are forms of hemorrhage, where the vessel bursts in the head or neck area. Subarachnoid and intracerebral hemorrhage results from a burst of an aneurysm or from trauma sustained in an accident or from excess internal pressure. The most important step in a positive recovery is immediate medical treatment when the symptoms begin their onset. Most Hospital ER’s have a stroke protocol when a patient presents to their facility with stroke-type symptoms (blurred vision, slurred speech, headache, weakness on one side of the body and/or dizziness) to assist with immediate diagnosis and prompt treatment action.
After the patient is deemed medically stable in the hospital, the patient’s Primary Care Physician (PCP) will order a series of screens and/or assessments to determine what areas are affected following his stroke. A Speech Pathologist is trained to look at the patient’s ability to swallow and determine if he is at risk for choking or aspiration as well as speech and language skills. The patient’s deglutition is of primary importance to his health because it is a basis for how he is taking nutrition and hydration to swallow medications as well as eating healthy to work through the healing process. A Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) will also look at the way the patient is communicating his wants/needs, memory and his ability to retain new information. This will allow the patient to be able to make requests and explain pain levels, in regards to how he is feeling on a particular day. Early rehabilitation will get that patient’s tolerance for new/different activity following his stroke event. He may then transfer to home care or outpatient therapy services to continue his healing process.
In my particular case, the patient is seen as an outpatient in the office. Specific diagnostics are utilized during the evaluation session to determine what areas are still affecting positive communication and clear speech. After the initial evaluation visit, a plan of care is implemented to determine if the patient is ready to establish and work towards his specific goals. It is important for the patient and his family to work together for goal establishment as well as utilizing the cueing hierarchy for word-finding errors to reduce frustration with the patient. Depending on the areas of need, a specific plan of care (POC) is established to meet those goals. The POC will establish frequency of visits and length of visits based on the patient’s need.
No two people have the same experiences and those two persons will rehabilitate differently in their recovery process, even with the same stroke diagnosis. It is imperative that the patient and his family be patient with communication and work with a trained SLP who can assist with the rehabilitative process that is tailored to meet his individual needs and personal background.
