We’re Looking for California Speech Language Pathologists to Join Our Team!

Ready to change the world? Telepractice is an emerging service delivery method that many SLPs believe will mark a major evolution for the profession. Presence TeleCare is setting the gold standard for telepractice for years to come.

We are looking for talented SLPs throughout California who are passionate about contributing to the advancement of their profession.
As part of our team, you can work from home no matter where you live, with hours that you determine yourself. You can focus on clients in your preferred specialty. You can provide access to populations in severe need of SLP services. Our group of telepractice SLPs spans California and the nation, and is growing daily.

We are utterly devoted to providing high-quality, evidence-based intervention. This means we are looking SLPs with tremendous clinical talent. If this describes you, and you are excited about the advantages of telepractice, contact us today at Careers@PresenceTeleCare.com.

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Telemedicine Helps Rural SLPs Diagnose Dysphagia

In a 2006 ASHA Leader article, Kristy Potter, a speech-language pathologist in rural Kansas, asserts that telemedicine technology has helped her complete numerous videoswallow evaluations and provide more comprehensive care for her patients. She admits that prior to using telemedicine, she was not confident in diagnosing patients for dysphagia. She was often the only SLP in the facilities that she worked at; moreover, many rural facilities lacked the equipment and the support staff to perform videoswallows. When the University of Kansas Medical Center adopted telemedicine technology, Potter benefitted from being able to consult with SLPs at the urban medical center. With the telemedicine equipment, the SLPs at the urban site saw images as effectively as if they were seeing it on a fluoroscope in person. Potter explains, “The beneﬁts of telepractice for videoswallow evaluations are many and far-reaching: it provides rural, underserved areas with access to an academic medical center and both patient and provider beneﬁt from the knowledge and expertise of a host of specialized medical professionals.”

Work begins on national e-health record network (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
Online behavioral health on American Well’s platform, and a hint at Cisco/UHG (thehealthcareblog.com)
Convergence of eHealth and Health 2.0? (ehealth.johnwsharp.com)

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Lee Woodruff Discusses Her Family’s Experiences with SLPs and Audiologists

Lee Woodruff’s life was turned upside down in 2006 when her husband Bob, the co-anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight, suffered a traumatic head injury from a roadside bomb while reporting on the Iraq War. After his brain injury, Bob could barely speak or remember the names of his children. He endured months of intense speech and physical therapy and struggled to learn how to read and write again. The effort was worthwhile, though: Bob’s doctors say he is about 90 percent back to where he was before the bomb attack. In an ASHA podcast, Lee talks about her experiences caring for her husband. In particular, she discusses how important SLPs and audiologists were to her husband’s miraculous recovery. She says that she made sure Bob attended every speech therapy and audiology session because she knew that these sessions would help him return to normal life more quickly. A more detailed account of the Woodruff’s experiences can be found in the article Home Again at lohud.com.

Bob Woodruff returns to Iraq, 3 years after blast (ctv.ca)
Clues to Blast-Related Brain Injury (technologyreview.com)

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Indie Film, Rocket Science, Features Stuttering Character

On a lighter note, here is the trailer for Rocket Science, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. The movie’s main character, Hal Hefner, is a stuttering high school boy who decides to join the debate team when its star debater, Ginny, recruits him. He attempts different methods to overcome his stutter during debate rounds, including singing his speeches. Although the movie doesn’t specifically deal with speech therapy, it does attempt to portray the difficulties that stutterers face in their daily lives. Plus, it’s pretty comical.

Nothing Special (emptyofwhat.com)

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British SLP Talks about How Speech Therapy Works and Who it Benefits

Here is an informative video clip of Michelle Morris, a British SLP, explaining how speech therapy works. She emphasizes that communication difficulties can happen to anyone at any point in their lives. Morris points out that although speech therapy cannot cure all communication problems, interventions at key points in people’s lives can make a big difference.

The Solutions To Properly Managing The Stuttering Issue (jaysdad.com)
Madison: Spokesperson Extraordinaire (thiswomanswork.com)

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Patients of The Visiting Nurse Service of New York Home Care Rate Telepractice Highly

In 2006, The Visiting Nurse Service of New York piloted the Speech Telehealth Program in Manhattan. Since the inception of the program, more than 200 patients with speech-related difficulties have been treated through telepractice sessions. The program has managed to treat diverse patients, with conditions ranging from post-stroke communication disorders and neurogenic dysfunctions to Parkinson’s disease and aphasia. The advantage of using telepractice technology is that each therapy session can be designed to meet the individual needs of the patient. For instance, telepractice makes it possible for SLPs to give Lee Silverman Voice Treatment, an intense treatment that typically requires four treatment sessions a week. Patients gave the Speech Telehealth Program very favorable ratings: on a scale from 1 (lowest satisfaction) to 5 (highest satisfaction), results ranged from 4.2 to 4.8.

Device Helps Parky Mumblers! (deepbraindiary.com)
Full-Spectrum Living (blisstree.com)

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A Day in the Life of a Speech Language Pathologist

Here is an interesting video of some SLPs talking about their work experiences in the Prairie Lakes school district of Iowa. The SLPs discussed their expanding roles in schools. For example, more SLPs are providing consultative services to teachers and helping children develop their language skills, such as reading comprehension and vocabulary. One SLP even described herself as a “communication interventionist”.

Long waiting lists for speech-language pathologists in Alberta (cbc.ca)

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SLPs and Researchers Enthusiastic about Telepractice in Schools

As the demand for SLPs in school districts rises, more and more schools are facing severe shortages of SLPs. A 2008 article in The ASHA Leader reported that public schools in West Virginia are turning to telepractice technology to address these personnel shortages. Jeanne Juenger, an SLP in West Virginia, said, “It’s no secret that rural districts and small districts are having a difficult time recruiting qualified speech-language pathologists.” She says that telepractice, on the other hand, is a sensible solution because it does not require “tens of thousands of dollars. You just need to use readily available technology well.” The good news is that many school districts in West Virginia already have the computer hardware and software in place to support long-distance learning. Susan Grogan-Johnson, a researcher that is directing a long-term pilot program in Hardin County, says with enthusiasm, “We’re finding that telepractice is a wonderful service delivery model with the potential to fill a niche in the speech-language treatment in public schools. It has the potential to provide master’s-level speech-language treatment to students who wouldn’t receive services otherwise”.

Video: Stimulus Helping Teachers? (cbsnews.com)
Sensory Processing Disorder: One Mother’s Story (momblognetwork.com)

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Send Us Your Most Inspiring Stories of Speech Therapy

At Presence Telecare, we believe in providing high-quality speech therapy over the internet by combining the latest technology in videoconferencing and interactive educational software. The ability to deliver effective speech therapy over the internet is an extremely powerful tool for it enables more people to connect with experienced speech language pathologists in an affordable and convenient manner. The positive feedback we have been receiving over the past few months has been tremendous and are looking forward to hearing more. In an effort to fully understand the extent to which speech pathology can improve a child’s life, we would like to hear from you. Over the next 30 days, we will be collecting the most inspiring stories from SLPs and parents who have witnessed first-hand the positive impact great speech therapy can have on a child’s life. The Presence Telecare staff will post our favorite three stories on our blog and then leave it up to our fans to vote on the overall winner. The author of the most inspiring story will be awarded a $100 Amazon gift certificate.

Please send your stories to general@presencetelecare.com by October 21st to be considered in the competition. Make sure your submissions do not exceed 1,000 words.

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Telepractice Brings Speech Therapy to Patients from Hawaii to Japan

In 2005, the Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, HI experimented with a telepractice program that delivered speech therapy to patients stationed in remote areas of Japan. An article in The ASHA Leader noted that prior to the telepractice program, patients had to be air evacuated from Japan to Hawaii to attend speech therapy sessions. Not only did this amount to severe travel expenses and time away from their duty stations, but the patients were rushed through a condensed, two-week-long treatment plan that was not as effective as the standard course of treatment. The Tripler Army Medical Center conducted a study in which fifty-one patients completed a pilot program assessing the efficacy of telepractice in providing voice treatment—there were no significant differences between the control group and the telepractice group in acoustic, perceptual, laryngoscopy, or patient satisfaction ratings. In fact, the patients in the telepractice group indicated that they felt very comfortable using videoconferencing technology to receive treatment.