Question
I have worked in skilled nursing facilities and with home health clients on a per diem basis in my career. I do get to see how other therapists work with dysphagia, and this raises some questions because everyone does things a little bit different from t
Answer
Once we have completed our initial assessment, we develop a plan of care that should be specific to that patient. Our long and short term goals give us our basis for daily therapies and provide us guidelines to ensure we are making progress toward our end goal. During each therapy session, we should always be "treating, evaluating, treating, reevaluating" and our therapy should always be functional. The best way to do this is to provide oral tastes/swallow trials in every session. We should always present the foods/liquids that we know the patient is safe swallowing but then "push the limits" by presenting trials of the foods/liquids that are difficult for the patient. Of course, you present the foods/liquids safely (possibly start with tastes, L tsp.,
Gale Estes-Waddell, M.A.,CCC-SLP
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