Hearing and Speech Evaluation after a Stroke

An elderly man came into the clinic for a speech diagnostic. He has recently had two strokes leaving one vocal fold paralyzed. The patient's vocal fold was left open and caused him to whisper. Automatically, I was thinking about speech testing and if he would be able to be evaluated. However, with just an increase in the talk back, I could hear him perfectly. His hearing was within normal limits and he seemed to do very well with all tasks, even raising his hand. Since the patient was taking many medications, he was dizzy and needed assistance while walking through the clinic.
The biggest concern for this patient was communication. A device was bought to amplify the patient's own voice. However, it was not specific enough to pick up his voice except for at very close proximity. Information was given and he was directed to the augmentative device person in the program. I found a list of tips on choosing augmentative devices here:

http://www.linc.org/ataugcom.html

And # 4 on the list was choosing a device with good speech quality...which is exactly what this patient needs. The list is very informal but gives good general and simple ideas.

Also, I found an article on the information that should be given to family members of a stroke patient. I thought that this article was important since the family is being relied on to take care of the individual and to help with therapy. The patient's daughter came with him to the clinic and showed great concern and attentiveness to all information. Basically, the article found that the patient and family members need three things from their health professionals: information, counseling, and accessibility.

Relatives of hospitalized stroke patients: their needs for information, counselling and accessibility. By: van der Smagt-Duijnstee, Miebet E., Hamers, Jan P.H., Abu-Saad, Huda Huijer, Zuidhof, Arjan, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 03092402, Feb2001, Vol. 33, Issue 3

http://web.ebscohost.com.www.libproxy.wvu.edu/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=107&sid=fff35d66-ce82-4c19-9b67-0cc417fe6594%40sessionmgr107