Dysphagia refers to impaired swallowing and is a common condition among older adults. This condition can lead to serious health concerns such as malnutrition, dehydration, and aspiration pneumonia. While safety is often our key concern for those diagnosed with dysphagia, it is essential to also remember how it impacts emotional and social well-being. Speech [...]
Dementia is more than just memory loss. It is a collection of symptoms affecting thinking, memory, language, and behaviour. A person with Dementia may have difficulty completing everyday tasks like reading, writing, expressing emotions, finding words when talking, and participating in conversations. Dementia is not a normal part of ageing. Rather, it is caused by brain disease. [...]
Join us in celebrating International Day of Older Persons 2022, with a focus on "celebrating the resilience and contributions of older women". In this video, Beth is reflecting on services that are available for those with dementia, to help our older people to live well as part of the Illawarra community. [...]
Speech pathologists play a key role in dementia management. Speech pathology intervention in dementia includes treating speech, language, communication, cognitive, and swallowing disorders that arise across the progression of the disease. This evidence-based summary of dementia interventions was written by two speech pathology students on placement with Wollongong Speech Pathology: Clarisse Baker and Sarah [...]
They say that communication is a two-way street. There are always two or more people involved in an interaction. So when communication breaks down, maybe both people need to make changes so that communication can be better? That is essentially what communication partner training is all about. In this article, I'll explain what it [...]
Making a dementia diagnosis is not a straight-forward process. Sometimes it can take years for a firm diagnosis to be made. What does an assessment involve? Dementia diagnosis requires a team approach. As a minimum, assessment will involve: a case history (your GP will ask you questions about your past, your current concerns, what is working [...]
Dementia is already the leading cause of disability in Australians aged over 65 years. So we need to find ways to better support the ever-growing number of older Australians with dementia. There is increasing evidence that speech pathology and dementia go together. Speech pathologists can play an important role in dementia-related communication or swallowing problems. Our goal is to [...]
