What is Teletherapy?

With teletherapy, consultations and therapy sessions are conducted remotely via a computer, laptop, tablet, or ipad with high speed internet. Using secure live video chat, our clients and family members are able to participate in a live, interactive therapy session from the comfort of their home. Teletherapy is recognized by our national association (SAC) and our provincial regulatory body (CASLPO) as one way to deliver speech therapy.

Who Can Benefit from Teletherapy?

A variety of circumstances can lead to a client or family choosing teletherapy over traditional clinic therapy. Following are a few scenarios in which a client or family might opt for teletherapy:

• Homeschooling families or those with multiple children for whom it is difficult to schedule regular clinic sessions for a single child
• Clients who are ill, homebound, or have compromised immune systems
• Clients who live far away or have or have limited access to reliable transportation for clinic visits
• Clients who have sustained recent concussions or head injuries and driving is difficult or being in a bright and noisy environment makes it challenging
• Clients with limited time during the day and wish to participate in a therapy session without the added time of travel

How Does Teletherapy Work?

Teletherapy sessions are scheduled in advance at a convenient time just like clinic visits. Once an appointment is scheduled, the client or family member receives an email with a private link to access the virtual “treatment room”. By clicking the link, the family is connected with the therapist within seconds in a videoconference. The videoconference platform that Chorus Speech and Hearing uses is compliant with Canadian privacy laws (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act – PIPEDA).

What Do I Need to Participate in Teletherapy?

The technology required for teletherapy is commonly found in households and includes:

• Computer, laptop, iPad, or tablet
• Webcam (included in iPads and most computers, but can be purchased inexpensively if needed)
• Headset or ear buds (not necessary for all client types or therapy sessions)
• High speed broadband internet (minimum of 3Mbps download speed and 1Mbps upload speed)

Are You Ready to Give Teletherapy a Try?

If you believe teletherapy may be right for you or your child, call us at 289-856-9933 or email us at info@choruscare.ca.

So as promised in a previous blog about Aphasia Awareness Month, here are some simple tips when communicating with someone with Aphasia:

To Help Get the Message IN:

• Keep it simple. Don’t use long drawn-out sentences without any pauses.
• Write key words as you’re speaking to emphasize the message. Using a black marker on a white blank paper works well.
• Use pictures or their communication device.
• Review what you are saying and ask them if they understood you.

To Help Get the Message OUT:

• Allow extra time.
• Ask one question at a time and provide choices.
• Encourage the person to use gestures, draw pictures, or write words to help if they’re stuck on a word.
• Acknowledge their competence. You can say “I know you know what you want to say, it’s just hard getting it out.”
• Use pictures or their communication device.
• Review what you think the message is.
• If you don’t understand what the person is saying, it’s ok to say so.

You’d be surprised how effective these strategies can be. I once had a client who could only say “yes” or “no” on his own after his stroke. He came to therapy visibly upset one day and instead of starting the session, I spent some time trying to figure out why he was upset. He pointed to his belly. By writing down key words, giving him choices, and using pictures, I was able to determine that “needle,” “stomach,” and “this morning” were important words. I then took this information to the nurse after the therapy session and the nurse immediately realized that he had not gotten his insulin shot that morning.

This example goes to show how much people with aphasia can communicate with us if we use the right tools and strategies. There are some nice graphics from the American Heart Association reviewing some of these communication tips.

If you know someone with aphasia and would like to find out more about how to communicate with them most effectively, send us an email or give us a call at info@choruscare.ca or 289.856.9933.

*Image courtesy of jesadaphorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Cancer and hearing loss. These are words that don’t have a strong association in our vernacular. When you or a loved one is battling cancer, there are other concerns that take centre stage. Working in an oncology and palliative floor at the hospital, I’m acutely aware of the physical and emotional distress that the cancer survivor and their loved ones go through.

One area that’s often overlooked due to the medical urgency of cancer is discussions around quality of life. Chemotherapy drugs are often effective at treating some cancers, but they can have a lot of negative side-effects on the person. One of them is it being harmful to the ears, in other words, ototoxic. Specifically, some platinum drugs such as cisplatin is highly ototoxic and this is well documented in research.

As a healthcare provider, I’m an advocate for improving one’s health but I feel one’s quality of life is just as important. Especially when someone has survived cancer and there may be a risk or recurrence or new disease, you want to optimize their social and emotional well-being by ensuring they have the tools to communicate well.

A well-known researcher in the field of ototoxicity and Audiology, Dr Kathleen Campbell, has experienced this first hand with her family member and reinforces the importance of monitoring someone’s hearing throughout their cancer journey when treated with these ototoxic drugs (read her interview here). Not only is regular monitoring important, but also providing these individuals with digital hearing aids that can accommodate the changing hearing loss through their cancer journey. It’s just as important for them to be able to stay connected with their loved ones as it is for them to continue fighting.

So what would be considered an ototoxic event? The American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) defines a significant ototoxic event as meeting one of the three criteria:

a) more than 20 dB decrease at any one test frequency
b) more than 10 dB decrease at any two adjacent frequencies, or
c) loss of response at three consecutive frequencies where responses were previously obtained.

If this is duplicated after 24 hours, then it’s considered an ototoxic change.

Who can determine these side-effects? A licensed Audiologist would be able to test your hearing and monitor these changes and have frank discussions about the status of you or your loved one’s hearing ability.

Dr Campbell suggests regular monitoring before each round of chemo and after the full course of treatment. That way, a baseline can be established and any changes because of each chemo treatment session can be documented.

This is particularly important for children, since they are at greater risk of ototoxicity than adults. These children should have long-term audiologic follow-up when a hearing loss is detected during and after chemotherapy.

June is National Cancer Survivor Month. Focusing on the fight against cancer is very important, but let’s not lose focus on the person and their need for connectedness throughout their journey.

For more information you can email us at info@choruscare.ca or call us at 289.856.9933.

*Image courtesy of winnond at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Aphasia: uh–fey-zhuh

“Imagine if the last word you say tonight is the last word for the rest of your life”. This is the slogan that Stephen Goff is seen holding up during his moving presentation along with his wife, Carol Goff. Stephen was a very successful businessman in both Canada and the United States and was in no way, short of words. Then he suffered a stroke in 1994 on the left side of the brain that left him with aphasia and unable to speak, read, write, and work with numbers.

I had the pleasure of meeting Stephen and Carol at a recent talk they did at the hospital I currently work. They were the main speakers for our May Speech & Hearing month event and over 200 people were in attendance. Stephen wrote key words to get his message across with the occasional verbal word to emphasize his message, and Carol then interpreted the message for the listeners. The audience was captivated at what he had to say with the help of his wife, and thanks to them, more people have been educated on the effects of aphasia.

June is National Aphasia Awareness Month. Aphasia is the loss of ability to speak, understand, write, or read due to damage in the brain. This damage could be from a traumatic brain injury, stroke, tumor, or even degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. The damage is in the language centres of the brain, which in most people is in the left hemisphere. Aphasia itself does not affect intelligence, but due to the limited awareness of the symptoms of aphasia, people are often mistaken for having intellectual impairments. Over 100,000 Canadians live with aphasia and about 1/3 of stroke victims experience it.

Aphasia is a language impairment from brain damage.

*Image courtesy of samuiblue at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Since communication is so important to us and our relationships, those with aphasia will often feel isolated and depressed. It is important for those individuals to receive speech therapy to help them improve their ability to communicate.

I have worked on stroke and rehab units in hospitals as well as on a specialized stroke team that treated people in their homes. There are great programs that are offered through the hospital either through the rehab unit or in outpatient therapy programs. Unfortunately, once a patient is discharged from the public system, the individual or family members do not know the person with aphasia can further benefit from ongoing therapy. Conversation groups or Aphasia groups provide one avenue for continued practice with their speech and language goals, but this does not replace direct speech therapy with a speech-language pathologist. It’s amazing how the brain continues to change even years after its injury! I have seen people with aphasia 6+ years after their initial stroke who continue to improve in their speech and language skills once provided with direct speech therapy.

This topic is especially near and dear to my heart since my own father suffered a stroke at the age of 66. He lost the ability to use the right side of his body and had difficulties communicating due to a significant expressive aphasia as well as a motor speech disorder called apraxia of speech. This meant that he went from being fully trilingual in English, Japanese, and Korean, to only being able to speak one word at a time in his first language, Korean. Fortunately, he retained most of his ability to understand simple conversations and could still listen and laugh appropriately when our family was in conversation. With enough therapy and practice, he was able to speak short phrases and even order his own coffee all on his own whenever he did his laps at the local mall. What was interesting to me was watching others interact with him. Some people who knew him before his stroke continued to treat him the same and spoke to him as if he didn’t have a language impairment. Others sat awkwardly and did not know how to address my father. I saw my father light up when people took the time to engage with him but sit disinterested when people largely ignored him.

My hope is that with ongoing efforts like National Aphasia Awareness Month, people will realize that individuals with aphasia have a story to tell and that these individuals are just waiting for you to ask.

If you or a loved one is living with aphasia, please share this message.

Also, if you have questions about aphasia and speech therapy, call us at 289.856.9933 or email us at info@choruscare.ca.

Stay tuned for our next article that will review communication tips for those with aphasia.

*Main image courtesy of Chaiwat at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Chorus Speech & Hearing Centre hosted a May Speech & Hearing Month event at Tria Cafe in the Palermo Professional Building on May 28 to increase the awareness and profile of speech-language pathologists and audiologists. There was great food, prizes, and great company.

Bon-Hi Moon, a speech-language pathologist, presented on the general scope of practice of a speech-language pathologist. She highlighted the difference between speech and language and showed an inspiring clip of Carl McIntyre, an actor who suffered a severe stroke in Sept 2005 that left him with aphasia and apraxia of speech. If you haven’t had a chance to check him out, he is the main actor in the short film called Aphasia playing himself. She then shared an interesting swallowing case that helped identify the potential cause of someone’s long-standing complaints of “foods getting stuck” in her throat.

Leanne Secen, another speech-language pathologist, presented an interesting pediatric case where by changing the focus of therapy, therapy outcomes improved greatly. A once non-verbal child is using 20 words appropriately and continues to make progress in therapy. She also highlighted the importance of early identification and intervention. Sometimes, friends and family, and even well-meaning doctors may say “oh don’t worry, he’ll grow out of it,” but this may not be true in most cases. According to researchers, untreated speech and language impairments can result in long-lasting poor academic performance.

The final presentation was by John Moon, an audiologist, who presented on hazardous noises and the importance of hearing loss prevention. He shared some shocking examples of loud noises in our daily lives such as sporting events, children’s toys, and occupation related noise. Some noisy toys could be as loud as jet planes taking off when held right at the ear! He also highlighted that occupation related noise exposure is not only for those working in construction or manufacturing. People like hairdressers working with hairdryers all day, radiation technologists working with MRI machines, and dental professionals and clinicians working with their tools are at risk of hazardous noises that could lead to damaging hearing loss. And let’s not forget our young people who are constantly tethered to their personal devices and listening to loud music. Once you lose your hearing, it doesn’t come back! So the take-home message here was “let’s take care of our ears”.

Those in attendance had a chance to win great draw prizes like $50 gift cards to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Starbucks cards, and movie passes. Envision Eyecare also generously donated a pair of ladies Spy sunglasses.

Thank you to all who attended our first annual Chorus May Speech & Hearing Month Celebration and we hope to see you at next year’s event!

If you have any questions or would like to find out more about speech, language, swallowing, or hearing, please give Chorus a call at 289-856-9933 and we’d be more than happy to answer your questions.

Find the freedom to…donate your old hearing aids and help others!

Donated hearing aids will be given to Canadian International Hearing Services (CIHS), a charitable organization that refurbishes and distributes used hearing aids to those in need.  CIHS has helped bring the gift of improved hearing to countless individuals around the world, and contributes towards a number of worthwhile hearing-related causes.  CIHS supports schools for the deaf and trains personnel to identify hearing problems and properly dispense and service hearing devices to those who can truly benefit from them.

No aids to donate?  No problem!  Simply bring in a non-perishable food item for the Kerr Street Market Food Bank. This Oakville-based charitable organization, run by Kerr Street Ministries, helps to feed local residents experiencing financial challenges.  Unfortunately, demand is often greater than supply, and donations are always much needed.

At Chorus, we believe that there is great benefit to joining forces with others, giving back to our community, and in helping those in need.  We support both of these worthy causes, and feel that with your contributions, we can make a difference.  In appreciation of your donation, we will credit* you $600 towards the purchase of new hearing aids.  And, we will work with you to ensure you receive the best hearing devices to suit your unique needs, taking into account your lifestyle, budget, preferences and concerns.

Whether you choose Chorus or another hearing healthcare provider, we encourage you to check out these organizations.  Please visit:  www.c-i-h-s.com  and  www.kerrstreet.net.

To book your FREE** hearing test, call 289-856-9933 today!

*$600 credit per pair, on selected items. Limited time offer.

** free hearing test for adults 18+

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