Category Archives: advocacy

Another year of successful capstone projects

A big congratulations to Claire Malany, Hayley Neptune, and Magda van Leeuwen on the successful completion of their master’s capstone projects. The projects they completed through the O-SEE Lab were all extremely meaningful and clinically relevant – and have great potential to impact the field of speech-language pathology. The titles of their projects were:

Mealtime management of culturally and linguistically differing (CLD) populations: A qualitative study (Claire Malany and Hayley Neptune)

Implications of snacking on nutrition and quality of life in nursing home residents (Magda van Leeuwen)

 

Check out the great handouts they prepared with some of the key take-aways from their talks!

Cultural Responsivity and Dysphagia

Implications of Snacking on Nutrition and Quality of Life in Nursing Home Residents

Oregon Speech-Language and Hearing Association Conference

We had a lot of representation at this year’s Oregon Speech-Language and Hearing Association Conference! Our participants this year included: Dr. Shune, collaborator Dr. Reva Barewal, current Ph.D. students David Bayne, Ting-fen Lin, and Bedoor Nagshabandi; lab alumni Rachel Gulliford, Marissa White, and Lauren Zinnershine.

Barewal, R. & Shune, S. (2020). Transitional foods: Updates on their behavior, use, and benefits in both adult and pediatric populations.

*Bayne, D., *Gulliford, R., Thompson, A., *White, M., & Shune, S. (2020). Developing a hospital-based simulation lab for increased educational exposure.

*Bayne, D., Barewal, R., & Shune, S. (2020). The use of enhanced foods to reduce malnourishment.

*Lin, T., Deshmukh, R., & Shune, S. (2020). Swimming against the currents of work-related stress in healthcare.

*Zinnershine, L., *Nagshabandi, B., & Shune, S. (2020). Speech-language pathologists’ perceptions of factors affecting dysphagia adherence in the inpatient setting.

 

 

ABSSD Webinar for Dysphagia Awareness Month

A big thank you to the American Board of Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders for inviting Dr. Shune and Dr. Ashwini Namasivayam-MacDonald to speak about caregiver burden as part of their Dysphagia Awareness Month series. It was wonderful to be able to share our recent work and discuss opportunities for both clinicians and researchers to better engage with caregivers and family members.

In case you missed it, a recording of the Zoom session is available on their Facebook page here.

In light of COVID-19 and the increased burden placed on caregivers, the ABBSD has focused on honoring caregivers this Dysphagia Awareness Month. They have created a number of wonderful infographics that they have been sharing on their social media throughout the month, including:

NFOSD Webinar – Dysphagia’s Impact on Families

Dr. Shune had the pleasure of presenting with RiverBend speech-language pathologist Michele Vandehey a webinar on “Dysphagia’s Broader Impacts on Caregivers and Families,” organized by the National Foundation of Swallowing Disorders.

Check out the link below for a recording of that webinar!

Webinar Recording: Dysphagia’s Broader Impacts on Caregivers & Families

Malnutrition Awareness Week

As speech-language pathologists we often work with older adults with dysphagia. Did you know that patients with dysphagia are at higher risk for developing malnutrition? Did you know that older adults are also at higher risk for developing malnutrition?

Malnutrition is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. This includes: decreased function and quality of life, increased frequency and length of hospital stay, greater likelihood of hospital readmission, more health-care associated infections, worse health outcomes, higher rates of depression, and higher healthcare costs.

We MUST pay attention to nutritional requirements and the prevention of malnutrition when treating dysphagia in older adults. SLPs play an important role in the interdisciplinary management of nutrition, hydration, and safe eating/swallowing!

June is Dysphagia Awareness Month

National Dysphagia Awareness Month provides an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of feeding and swallowing disorders that can impact infants, children, adults, and families. This year there are many easy (and free) ways you can get involved:

  1. Follow the National Foundation of Swallowing Disorders’ Photo Fact of the Day Campaign on Facebook. Throughout the month of June, they will have daily sponsors of a Photo Fact who have pledged funds for each “share” a photo receives.
  2. Participate in the #ThickenedLiquidChallenge2017. SimplyThick will donate $50 per video to the NFOSD! See more information here: http://www.simplythick.com/Thickened-Liquid-Challenge-2017
  3. Use the hashtag #NationalDysphagiaAwarenessMonth when posting on social media.

These are just a few of the new things happening this month. Of course, there are other way to advocate all year long! If you are looking for more ideas, feel free to contact Dr. Shune.