UAMS Outpatient Therapy Clinic Receives Parkinson’s Grant
| FAYETTEVILLE – Parkinson Voice Project has named the UAMS Outpatient Therapy Clinic in Fayetteville as a recipient of its 2021 SPEAK OUT! & LOUD Crowd Grant Program.
SPEAK OUT! is a therapy regimen tailored to people with Parkinson’s disease to improve their voicing, and in turn, their swallowing. SPEAK OUT! is usually completed in 12 sessions spanning several weeks, and then the client transitions to the LOUD Crowd, which is a group therapy program that meets weekly. With completion of this therapy regimen, clients report improvement in their speaking and their overall quality of life.
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.
“We are honored and thrilled to receive this grant and to start offering this proven therapy program to our patients,” said clinic manager Nathan Jowers. “The UAMS Outpatient Therapy Clinic is committed to providing effective speech therapy programs in Northwest Arkansas, and this grant will substantially help us advance our mission in this region.”
The UAMS Outpatient Therapy Clinic is offering SPEAKOUT! as a one-on-one therapy program and the LOUD Crowd as a group program. All sessions occur at the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus in Fayetteville. For more information on the program, visit nwa.uams.edu/speak-out-loud-crowd/, email escott@uams.edu or call the clinic at 479-713-8630.
“Up to 90% of people with Parkinson’s are at high risk of losing their ability to speak, and swallowing complications account for 70% of the mortality rate in this patient population,” said Parkinson Voice Project’s Founder and CEO Samantha Elandary. “Our vision at Parkinson Voice Project is to make our highly effective speech therapy program accessible to people with Parkinson’s worldwide.”
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 has trained more than 3,500 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. More information is available at their website: ParkinsonVoiceProject.org.
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute and Institute for Digital Health & Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise including its hospital, regional clinics and clinics it operates or staffs in cooperation with other providers. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. U.S. News & World Report recognized UAMS Medical Center as a Best Hospital for 2021-22; ranked its ear, nose and throat program among the top 50 nationwide for the third year; and named five areas as high performing — colon cancer surgery, diabetes, hip replacement, knee replacement and stroke. Forbes magazine ranked UAMS as seventh in the nation on its Best Employers for Diversity list. UAMS also ranked in the top 30% nationwide on Forbes’ Best Employers for Women list and was the only Arkansas employer included. UAMS has 2,876 students, 898 medical residents and six dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.
The UAMS Northwest Regional Campus includes 290 medical, pharmacy, nursing and health professions students, 64 medical and pharmacy residents, two sports medicine fellows, and 1,000 community-based faculty. The campus has nine clinics including a student-led clinic and physical, occupational and speech therapy. Faculty conduct research to reduce health disparities. Visit www.uams.edu or www.uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.