Parkinson Voice Project® Awards 2024 SPEAK OUT!® Clinical Education Grant to Great Plains Health.

Parkinson Voice Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving  the voices of people with Parkinson’s, named Great Plains Health a 2024 SPEAK OUT! Grant  Program recipient. 

Grant recipients include hospitals, universities, private practices, and other organizations  providing speech therapy across the United States and abroad. Each Clinical Education grant  recipient receives training for their speech-language pathologists and students, SPEAK OUT!  eLibrary access, and the opportunity for SPEAK OUT! workbooks and other materials. 

The SPEAK OUT! Grant Program honors the late Daniel R. Boone, Ph.D., a world-renowned  speech-language pathologist who recognized in the 1950s that individuals with Parkinson's  could improve their communication by “speaking with intent." Based on Boone’s teachings and  developed by Parkinson Voice Project, the SPEAK OUT! Therapy Program is a highly effective,  comprehensive program that helps people with Parkinson’s and related neurological disorders  regain and retain their speech and swallowing. By combining individual and group SPEAK OUT!  Therapy with ongoing patient and family education, people with Parkinson’s learn to transition  speech from an automatic function to an intentional act.  

“Up to 90% of people with Parkinson’s are at risk of losing their ability to speak. In addition,  swallowing complications account for 70% of the mortality rate in this patient population. Our  vision at Parkinson Voice Project is to make quality speech therapy accessible to people with  Parkinson’s worldwide,” said Samantha Elandary, Parkinson Voice Project’s Founder and Chief  Executive Officer. 

As a 2024 SPEAK OUT! Grant Program recipient, Great Plains Health is committed to offering  Parkinson Voice Project’s SPEAK OUT! Therapy Program to help people with Parkinson’s and  related neurological disorders in their community.