{"id":10781,"date":"2024-04-12T09:20:45","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T14:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=10781"},"modified":"2024-04-16T10:43:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T15:43:00","slug":"uw-eau-claire-expands-speech-therapy-and-audiology-service-options-for-community","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-eau-claire-expands-speech-therapy-and-audiology-service-options-for-community\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Eau Claire expands speech therapy and audiology service options for community"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Students make their way across the walking bridge over the Chippewa River and connecting lower campus on a warm Fall morning. (Students make their way across the walking bridge over the Chippewa River and connecting lower campus on a warm Fall morning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire\u2019s Center for Communication Disorders (CCD) is expanding its speech-language health care service options to respond to community needs after the announcement that multiple clinics and hospitals are closing in the Chippewa Valley.<\/p>\n

HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire and HSHS St. Joseph\u2019s Hospital in Chippewa Falls will close along with several Prevea Health clinics in the region in March and April, reducing the available speech therapy and audiology services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the HSHS and Prevea closure, we, at the CCD, have experienced an increase in the number of people from the Chippewa Valley inquiring about and accessing our speech and language services,\u201d says Lindsay Pohlen, CCD director. \u201cThis has provided our student clinicians with the opportunity to earn clinical hours and has diversified their clinical experience. The Center for Communication Disorders is grateful to be able to serve those in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The campus-based\u00a0CCD<\/a>\u00a0provides speech-language pathology services across all age ranges, from early childhood through late adulthood. All services are free and provided by undergraduate and graduate students who are pursuing degrees in speech-language pathology, audiology or other similar professions.<\/p>\n

Services are supervised by UW-Eau Claire faculty members who are licensed speech-language pathologists (SLPs) with expertise in all service-delivery areas. The CCD provides individual and group services both in person and via telehealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the CCD currently maintains a waiting list for individual services, existing groups have the capability to incorporate additional clients,\u201d Pohlen says. \u201cWe are striving to balance the needs of our students and the health care and service needs of the\u00a0community.\u201d<\/p>\n

UW-Eau Claire\u2019s Communication Sciences and Disorders program also is preparing additional professionals to address the community\u2019s long-term speech therapy and audiology service needs.<\/p>\n

The program offers a variety of options for students to earn a degree, both at the bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s levels. A master\u2019s degree is needed to practice as a SLP, but individuals can practice as a speech-language pathology assistant (SLPA) under the supervision of an SLP in a variety of service delivery settings. Both SLPs and SLPAs are needed across the region and state to fill numerous open positions, and especially to start new private-practice clinics to meet the growing need for services.<\/p>\n

The department offers both an on-campus and online master\u2019s degree. As part of this program, students gain academic and clinical experience with individuals of all ages, eventually leading to licensure as an SLP. Graduate students in the online program complete their clinical training in sites within their home community. Graduate students in the on-campus program complete their clinical training by providing services both within the CCD on campus, but also in conjunction with community SLPs throughout the Chippewa Valley.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Partnerships with regional SLPs in schools, hospitals, nursing homes and outpatient clinics are critical for training the next generation of SLPs.<\/p>\n

\u201cClosures of these regional health care partners have negatively impacted this training program, in addition to reducing the health care options for people throughout the region,\u201d says Laura Prince, CSD external placement coordinator. \u201cWe are grateful to other regional partners who have stepped in to assist students in finishing their clinical\u00a0training.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those seeking a bachelor\u2019s degree, the traditional on-campus program is recognized throughout the region for high-quality education. Recently, a new certificate was added, allowing CSD students to complete the training required to become an SLPA. Starting in fall 2024, students can complete the entire bachelor\u2019s degree, including the SLPA certificate, in a fully online format.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that adding a fully online option will allow prospective students throughout our region, and across Wisconsin, to get access to this training program without having to uproot their entire life to move to Eau\u00a0Claire,\u201d says Dr. Abby Hemmerich, CSD department chair.<\/p>\n

The additional SLPA option is made possible thanks to the $9.4 million Workforce Innovation Grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. UW-Eau Claire\u2019s multiyear award focuses on strengthening the regional workforce with new health-related career options and programming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CSD program has effectively leveraged the resources of the WEDC Workforce Innovation Grant to serve the health care needs of northwest Wisconsin and beyond,\u201d says Dr. Carmen Manning, dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences and co-primary investigator for the WEDC grant.<\/p>\n

For more information about the SLPA program, on-campus bachelor\u2019s degree and the online bachelor\u2019s degree, visit the\u00a0communication sciences and disorders academic offerings<\/a>\u00a0site.<\/p>\n

\n

Written by Gary Johnson<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/www.uwec.edu\/news\/news\/uw-eau-claire-expands-speech-therapy-and-audiology-service-options-for-community-5971\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire\u2019s Center for Communication Disorders (CCD) is expanding its speech-language health care service options to respond to community needs after the announcement that multiple clinics and hospitals are closing in the Chippewa Valley. HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire and HSHS St. Joseph\u2019s Hospital in Chippewa Falls will close along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":10812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[96],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-10781","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-eau-claire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/10781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=10781"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=10781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}