Minot State earns National SPEAK OUT!® and LOUD Crowd® grant
MINOT, N.D. – Minot State University was named as a recipient of the National SPEAK OUT!® and LOUD Crowd® Grant Program honoring Daniel R. Boone, PhD, CCC-SLP, by the National Parkinson Voice Project – a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
MSU assistant professor and Communication Disorders Clinic coordinator Lisa Roteliuk was notified the university was awarded the grant in April. Members of the MSU team will attend the Lead With Intent Symposium in Richardson, Texas, June 20-23, which includes an impressive list of speakers, including Laura Bush, former First Lady of the United States (2001-09).
“We have been trying to build up our adult clinic to give our students more adult experiences. We have a great pediatric clinic – and our adult clinic is good – just not on the level of the pediatric,” Roteliuk said. “We have had a couple Parkinson’s patients over the years since starting the voice clinic, but we haven’t had the certification or the training in those programs. The grant will pay for the training and will pay for books for 12 different clients. It will also provide online training for others in the future.”
The grant recipients represent hospital rehabilitation clinics, nonprofit Parkinson’s organizations, and university speech therapy clinics like Minot State’s which are being awarded $650,000 in training, therapy supplies, and funding from Parkinson Voice Project. Minot State is committed to replicating Parkinson Voice Project’s unique two-part speech therapy program that combines individual and group speech therapy to help people living with Parkinson’s across America restore their speaking abilities.
“Partnering with our grant winners will allow us to bring Parkinson Voice Project’s highly effective speech therapy program to communities in need of these services. Our goal is to reach more people living with Parkinson’s and restore their speaking abilities. Providing training, funding, and resources to dedicated new partners is a crucial part of the process,” said Parkinson Voice Project’s CEO and Founder, Samantha Elandary, in a press release.
The program is especially important for Minot State and the surrounding communities as it is the only program of its kind in western North Dakota.
“When we researched this program, we found there is only one other in the state working on this area and that’s in Fargo,” Roteliuk said. “Individuals from western North Dakota won’t have to travel four or five hours to get this type of therapy. We are excited to be able to offer this therapy, not only is it great for our students, but to help the community. North Dakota has the second highest incidence of Parkinson’s in the nation per capita so it will be a win-win for us and for the community.”
According to Roteliuk, the SPEAK OUT!® program is individual therapy for clients working on the levels of their voice and the LOUD Crowd® program is in a group setting.
“One of the issues with Parkinson’s is they tend to talk very softly, but think they are speaking at a normal tone,” she said. “The program is designed to help them talk louder and get them to a level that is more normal. Initially its two to four times a week in an individual setting. The second part is a maintenance group that meets monthly. It’s a place where individuals can meet in a group to practice their skills – there are signing components and speaking components – they can hone the skills and not lose them.“
The SPEAK OUT!® and LOUD Crowd® training will take place this summer and the clinic will be able to work with clients immediately following training. MSU students will then begin to work with the program starting in the fall.
“We will be able to work though the strategies and teach the students how to use those with clients,” Roteliuk said. “This will give them not only the science part, the how we do this, but the art part, how we look at reactions, when to pull back, when counseling is needed, the whole piece that will help future clinicians. This will be a great opportunity not only for them to learn, but great for their resumes having worked with the SPEAK OUT!® program.”
ABOUT PARKINSON VOICE PROJECT
Parkinson Voice Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. It’s the only speech therapy clinic in the world solely dedicated to preserving the voices of those with Parkinson’s using a two-part therapy approach: SPEAK OUT!® followed by The LOUD Crowd®.
SPEAK OUT!® consists of individual speech therapy sessions conducted by a speech-language pathologist. The LOUD Crowd® consists of maintenance groups. Since Parkinson’s is a progressive, degenerative condition, maintaining the strength of one’s voice can be challenging; therefore, both individual speech therapy and ongoing group support is necessary.
Parkinson Voice Project has not charged for its speech therapy services since 2008. Its clinic in Dallas-Fort Worth offers SPEAK OUT!® and The LOUD Crowd® to anyone diagnosed with Parkinson’s using a Pay It Forward system. Patients receive all the therapy they need and are then asked to Pay It Forward — make a donation to help the next patient who needs therapy. Parkinson Voice Project has more than 700 speech-language pathologists trained in its two-part therapy program throughout the U.S. and is starting to expand its international reach with clinicians trained in Australia, Canada, Finland, Greece, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and New Zealand.
About Minot State University
Minot State University is a public university dedicated to excellence in education, scholarship, and community engagement achieved through
rigorous academic experiences, active learning environments, commitment to public service, and a vibrant campus life.
| Published: 06/08/18 |
