Do I need outpatient speech therapy?

Speech therapy is a lot more than just sounds. St. Joseph’s/Candler speech language pathologist explains the components of this treatment.

There may come a time when a condition or injury requires you to have speech therapy. That doesn’t just mean you are having difficulty speaking. Speech therapy is a lot more than just sounds.

At St. Joseph’s/Candler, we offer outpatient speech therapy through our Center for Oto-Neurology, which is located on the second floor of the Danny Brown Building, Plaza B, across from St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Our speech language pathologist for outpatient speech therapy is Amanda Kidd.

“People may not think to ask for speech therapy because their speech is fine. A lot of times people don’t realize we do more than sounds,” Kidd says. “Especially in an outpatient setting, I tell people I work from your neck up.”

That includes not only speech disorders, but also swallowing difficulty, voice disorders and language and cognition changes.

If you are having difficulty swallowing, for example, we can do a study that shows us your swallowing pattern. Based on those results, Kidd can show you exercises that will improve those muscles. She also can help plan different diets that may make it easier to swallow.

“Our goal is to make sure that they are safely eating and drinking.”

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If you have a condition or had an injury that left you with memory problems, speech therapy also can help with that. If someone had a stroke, for example, they may have some short-term memory loss, Kidd says. She can work with these patients on different exercises and learning activities to improve their memory.

She also can teach patients ways to help them get through every day activities, like problem solving, reading a book or writing an email that may have become difficult.

Speech therapy also can help people who have had a change in their ability to communicate. It may be you are starting to have trouble remembering words, or you look at a word and know what it is but can’t say it. Some patients may have trouble pronouncing words when they were able to before. Kidd can help with all that.

Kidd also can help caregivers. She does patient and caregiver training to help the patient be better set up to be independent longer and help families communicate with one another.

So who can benefit from speech therapy? Kidd sees patients with a wide variety of conditions including post-stroke, Parkinson’s disease and aphasia, as well as head and neck injuries and general aging and early-stage dementia.

“One of the things we can do is help reduce the risk of a decline in some of those conditions or slow it down,” Kidd says. “There are times we may not be able to resolve the condition, like Parkinson’s, but what we can do is help interject some good changes to sustain their quality of life.”

You will need a referral for outpatient speech therapy so Kidd encourages you to talk to your physician. You can also call the Center for Oto-Neurology if you need help with a referral. That number is 912-819-2479.

“I like seeing patients improve, especially stroke patients, because they went from being able to do something, to not being able to, then back to doing it,” Kidd says. “Even for our Parkinson’s patients, where it’s not going to be stable forever, seeing these changes, that’s a nice thing.”