UND’s Northern Prairie Community Clinic receives grant to help Parkinson’s patients
UND’s Northern Prairie Clinic has received a grant to help Parkinson’s patients improve their speech and swallowing abilities. It will be administered by Jessica Foley, clinic director and clinical assistant professor in the department of communication sciences & disorders.
The grant is part of the Parkinson Voice Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping patients with Parkinson’s. The funds will be used for supplies and to train speech-language pathologists and graduate students.UND was one of 302 recipients of the grant.
“The Northern Prairie Clinic is committed to offering Parkinson Voice Projects’s effective speech therapy program, including free group therapy, in the Greater Grand Forks area,” Foley said. 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.
About UND’s Northern Prairie Community Clinic
The Northern Prairie Community Clinic offers mental health and communication science disorder services to the Greater Grand Forks community. It serves as a training placement for graduate students in psychology, counseling, and speech-language pathology. Licensed/licenseable professionals are available to serve clients with billable insurance at near market rates. The clinic serves the Grand Forks community and state of North Dakota.
About Parkinson Voice Project
The 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.
The grant program honors Daniel R. Boone, a world-renowned speech-language pathologist and voice expert to recognized in the late 1950s that individuals with Parkinson’s could improve their communication by “speaking with intent.” The program combines individual and group therapy to help patients convert speech from an automatic function to an intentional act.
The Parkinson Voice Project hosts daily online speech practice sessions to support and encourage people with Parkinson’s globally. These sessions are available on the organization’s website. The organization runs a speech therapy clinic in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and hosts the world’s largest Parkinson’s Chorus.
