SPEECH PATHOLOGY
+ SWALLOWING & UPPER AIRWAY DISORDERS
Upper airway disorders can be varied and complex, and often impact significantly on a person's quality of life. Working alongside other treating medical specialists, Sally brings her experience and training in the management of upper airway disorders to ensure her client's upper airway function and well-being are restored. She helps manage individuals who present with excessive throat clearing behaviours, chronic cough, swallowing difficulties, and vocal fold dysfunction. Treatment goals are typically met within 2-4 sessions.
COUGH
MANAGEMENT
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Chronic cough is a cough that has persisted for longer than two months and has remained resistant to all forms of medical management and interventions. It can have a significant impact on one’s quality of life. Chronic cough can exist alongside other irritable upper airway disorders such as persistent throat clearing. Speech pathology management can help identify the causes and triggers of your symptoms and provide effective strategies to reduce reflex sensitivity and hypersensitivity in your throat, with the aim of eliminating and/or giving you much improved voluntary control over your cough and throat symptoms.
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VOCAL CORD
DYSFUNCTION
Vocal cord dysfunction (VCD) occurs when your vocal folds partially close when they’re supposed to be open, resulting in significant challenges being able to breathe. VCD causes asthma like symptoms and as such, is often misdiagnosed for (and can co-exist alongside) asthma. VCD can be caused by exercise, environmental irritants, stress and anxiety, reflux, a viral infection and for some there is no known cause. VCD can be effectively managed, providing you with the strategies you need at the time of a VCD episode; you can develop the ability to have voluntary control of your vocal folds, and therefore the capacity to breathe with greater ease and control. Speech pathology management can also help you to eliminate and/or significantly reduce the incidence of VCD episodes.
SWALLOWING
DISORDERS
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Speech pathology plays a significant role in the diagnosis and management of swallowing disorders (otherwise known as Dysphagia). Sally works closely with her clients to eliminate and/or manage a number of swallowing concerns that may be acquired, or the result of an ongoing progressive disease. Sally works from either a rehabilitative approach to re-build the swallowing mechanism and eradicate any issues that prevent you from drinking and/or eating with ease, or provides compensatory techniques to ensure her clients have the essential balance of safety, nutrition and quality of life when eating and drinking.