Parkinson Voice Project® awards 2024 SPEAK OUT!® Clinical Training Grant to Great Plains Health

Health of the Great Plains

Richardson, Texas – The Parkinson Voice Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the voice of people with Parkinson’s disease, has named Great Plains Health as a recipient of the 2024 SPEAK OUT! Grant Program.

Grantees include hospitals, universities, private practices, and other organizations that provide speech therapy in the United States and abroad. Each clinical training grantee receives training for their speech therapists and students, access to the SPEAK OUT! eLibrary, and the opportunity to use SPEAK OUT! workbooks and other materials.

The SPEAK OUT! grant program honors the late Daniel R. Boone, Ph.D., a world-renowned speech therapist who recognized in the 1950s that Parkinson’s patients could improve their ability to communicate by “speaking with intention.” Based on Boone’s teachings and developed by the 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 ability to speak and swallow. By combining individual and group therapy with SPEAK OUT! and ongoing patient and family education, Parkinson’s patients learn to transform speaking from an automatic function to an intentional act.

“Up to 90% of Parkinson’s patients are at risk of losing their ability to speak. In addition, swallowing difficulties are responsible for 70% of the mortality rate in this patient group. Our vision at the Parkinson Voice Project is to provide Parkinson’s patients around the world with access to high-quality speech therapy,” said Samantha Elandary, founder and executive director of the Parkinson Voice Project.

As a 2024 SPEAK OUT! grant recipient, Great Plains Health is committed to offering the Parkinson Voice Project’s SPEAK OUT! therapy program to help people with Parkinson’s and related neurological conditions in their community.

About the Parkinson Voice Project The Parkinson Voice Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to improving speech and communication in people with Parkinson’s disease. Headquartered in Richardson, Texas, the organization has trained more than 10,000 clinicians in over 40 countries, including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cyprus, France, Ghana, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Israel, Greece, Lebanon, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, South Africa, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit: https://www.ParkinsonVoiceProject.org