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Hartford HealthCare Rehabilitation Network Awarded Grant for Parkinson’s Program
September 28, 2021
Parkinson Voice Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, has named Hartford HealthCare Rehabilitation Network as a recipient of its 2021 SPEAK OUT! & LOUD Crowd Grant Program.
Grant recipients include hospitals, university speech therapy clinics, private practices, and nonprofit organizations. Each clinic receives therapy supplies and free training for their speech-language pathologists and graduate students. Hartford HealthCare is committed to offering Parkinson Voice Project’s effective speech therapy program in their Cheshire, Meriden, Mystic, Norwich, Torrington, Vernon, West Hartford and Willimantic locations.
“Up to 90 percent of people with Parkinson’s are at high risk of losing their ability to speak, and swallowing complications account for 70 percent of the mortality rate in this patient population. Our vision at Parkinson Voice Project is to make our highly effective speech therapy program accessible to people with Parkinson’s worldwide,” said Parkinson Voice Project’s Founder and CEO Samantha Elandary.
This grant program honors Daniel R. Boone, PhD, CCC-SLP, a world-renowned speech-language pathologist and voice expert who recognized in the late 1950s that people with Parkinson’s could improve their communication by “speaking with intent.” Parkinson Voice Project’s program combines individual and group therapy to convert speech from an automatic function to an intentional act.
“We are very excited to, once again, have been named a recipient of the Parkinson Voice Project Grant. This allows us to continue providing specialized training in the evaluation and treatment of swallowing, speech and voice disorders related to Parkinson’s disease,” said Sylvia Fisher, Speech Pathology Program Director at Hartford Healthcare Rehabilitation Network.
“We have eight outpatient clinics within Connecticut that can offer this program to the community, including both virtual and in-person individualized SPEAKOUT! treatment sessions and LOUD Crowd communication group classes. With this grant we have also been able to expand these services into our homecare division across the State, servicing individuals who are unable to easily leave their homes for treatment. We look forward to continue helping individuals with Parkinson’s disease regain their voices so that they will have the confidence and satisfaction of participating in activities that they may have thought no longer possible.”
When people with Parkinson’s lose their speaking abilities, it has a tremendous impact on their lives by making it difficult to converse with family and friends, carry on telephone conversations, and even order food at restaurants. This program consists of weekly voice therapy sessions while also offering camaraderie, support, and encouragement to patients as they battle the progressive effects of Parkinson’s disease.
Hartford HealthCare Rehabilitation Network strives to be the premier rehabilitation provider in Connecticut; the company known for its commitment to high quality, customer-focused outcomes; the place where people want to work. Our goal is to create a seamless continuum of prevention and rehabilitation care, and to assist individuals with temporary or permanent impairments or disabilities in achieving their goals for maximum functional independence.
ABOUT PARKINSON VOICE PROJECT
Parkinson Voice Project is the only 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the world solely dedicated to helping individuals with Parkinson’s improve their speech and swallowing. The organization runs a speech therapy clinic in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and hosts the World’s Largest Parkinson’s Chorus.
Parkinson Voice Project’s hosts daily online speech practice sessions to support and encourage people with Parkinson’s globally. These sessions are available on the organization’s website.
Parkinson Voice Project has trained more than 3500 speech-language pathologists in its SPEAK OUT! & LOUD Crowd program, including clinicians in Australia, Canada, Israel, Italy, Greece, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.
A full listing of the 2021 grant recipients can be found here.