Speech-language pathologists present at national conference

At the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA) 2018 Convention, held recently in Boston, Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital speech-language pathologists Glory Dhanaraj, MS, CCC-SLP, and Brittany Morris, MA, CCC-SLP, presented their poster project titled “Speech Pathology Services in an Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Model.”

The goal of the on-going project was to integrate speech-language pathologists as members of the interdisciplinary palliative care team when managing dysphagia at the end of life. This project has enabled speech-language pathologists to have an increased presence during care discussions and family meetings. “We’ve found that speech-language pathology at the end of life is important as we are able to educate families on comfort feeding regimens,” says Dhanaraj.

Speech-language pathologists now also serve on the interdisciplinary palliative care committee.

Dhanaraj and Morris were thrilled to have the opportunity to share their work at the ASHA Convention, which was attended by more than 15,000 speech-language pathologists, audiologists and speech, language and hearing scientists. “It was a great networking opportunity for us and sharing our work is a way to increase dialogue about interdisciplinary practice and the role of the speech-language pathologist,” explains Dhanaraj. “It was also fascinating to hear convention participants share their experiences around this same issue.”