Parkinson Voice Project Saves Voices During COVID-19

RICHARDSON, Texas, April 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As soon as shelter-in-place orders became eminent across the globe due to COVID-19, Parkinson Voice Project, a nonprofit speech therapy clinic headquartered in Texas, jumped into action to ensure that people with Parkinson's everywhere would not suffer the ravages of speech loss and life-threatening swallowing complications.

"We knew that people with Parkinson's were going to need our help to maintain their speech and swallowing during this crisis," says Samantha Elandary, founder of Parkinson Voice Project. 

Elandary, who is also a speech-language pathologist, immediately scheduled Facebook LIVE "SPEAK OUT!^® Home Practice Sessions" Monday through Friday at 10 a.m. CT and Tuesdays at 6 p.m. CT.  Awareness of these online speech exercises is spreading. The practice sessions have more than 1.5K views daily, and numbers are increasing as more people with Parkinson's find out about this unique opportunity. Visit https://www.facebook.com/ParkinsonVoiceProject/  to view the Facebook LIVE "SPEAK OUT!^® Home Practice Sessions."

90% of individuals with Parkinson's are likely to experience speech difficulty.  If left untreated, the speech muscles become weaker, and the disease starts to affect the ability to swallow. These issues can lead to serious, life-threatening complications. Aspiration pneumonia accounts for 70% of the mortality rate in the Parkinson's population. 

"We want people with Parkinson's to know that our organization is committed to helping them keep their voices strong during COVID-19," says Elandary.

ABOUT PARKINSON VOICE PROJECT:
Parkinson Voice Project — celebrating its 15^th anniversary this year — is the only nonprofit organization in the world solely dedicated to helping individuals with Parkinson's preserve their speech and swallowing. Their effective speech therapy program combines individual speech therapy (SPEAK OUT!^®) with weekly group speech therapy (The LOUD Crowd^®).  Since 2008, Parkinson Voice Project's clinic in Texas has not billed insurance or charged for its services. Its program is funded through donations and the Pay It Forward concept.  

Parkinson Voice Project is successfully replicating its SPEAK OUT!^® & LOUD Crowd^® program across the globe to help more people with Parkinson's. They provide online training for speech-language pathologists, and their program materials are available in English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.

SOURCE Parkinson Voice Project