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Speech therapy offers help for Parkinsons

Friday 23rd January 2015
A large number of patients with Parkinsons suffer from speech problems, making therapists crucial for their treatment.
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Parkinson's disease is a debilitating condition that can be extremely difficult to manage for sufferers and their family. However, it now seems that speech therapists can go someway to help reduce the various challenges of the disease.

It is thought that around 90 per cent of people diagnosed with Parkinson's have some issue that can be addressed by a speech therapist. This can range from having difficult saying words clearly to being unable to say what they are thinking. 

"The actual physiology of how the vocal folds are moving changes, so that impacts how the sound is coming out, so people aren't able to get that nice, clear sound that they can communicate with because of weakness," Jeanmaire Ripke, a speech language pathologist, said. "They also have a perceptual component where they are not able to hear themselves correctly so they continue to get quieter and quieter."

One way that speech therapists can help patients with Parkinson's disease is to teach them new ways to use their voice and their speech mechanisms. These will be different from what they have been used to but will help rebuild the muscles of affected areas, which could result in having an overall negative impact on their communication skills.

Although speech therapy is often associated with children or those struggling with speech impediments, helping people with Parkinson's disease is just one of many ways that these professionals can help older patients.

Just a few one-hour sessions with a speech therapist every week can address this issue. However, a professional in this field will also be able to identify any other problems that the patient may have and offer treatment before the issue progresses.

With an ageing population and around 127,000 people already living with the condition in the UK, supporting those with Parkinson's could be something that grows in prominence for speech therapists over the coming years.

Written by Megan Smith

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