Swallow Awareness Day 2022

To mark Swallow Awareness Day 2022, Speech and Language therapists at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability took over Twitter to share their expertise. Many of the patients and residents at RHN have difficulties with eating, drinking and swallowing. The Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) team work to assess and manage swallowing difficulties to help individuals to eat and drink as safely as possible.

Head over to the RHN’s TikTok to see one of our Speech and Language Therapists explain some of the difficulties people may have following a brain injury. RHN patient, Mark, features in the video. He shows how a tasting foam is used to allow some of our patients and residents to safely taste their favourite beverages.

@rhnuk Tomorrow is Swallowing Awareness Day! Our speech and language therapy team use flavoured foam to allow some of our patients to safely taste their favourite beverages?☕️ #SLT #braininjury ♬ original sound – RHN

The RHN is one of few care providers in the UK using tasting foam, or “flavour bubbles”, to provide this experience to patients and residents.

SLT’s Twitter takeover highlights

SLTs at RHN use Fibreoptic Evaluation of Swallowing (FEES) to guide management. A small endoscope is passed through the nose so we can see the throat during swallowing. This helps us to see if food and drink is going the right way. And what consistencies are easiest to manage. pic.twitter.com/3oddgPVClX

— The Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability (@RHNuk) March 16, 2022

Nick has been working hard on swallow rehabilitation exercises and has recently started having small portions of minced & moist food at mealtimes. He describes this as “delightful” and is really enjoying his meals! pic.twitter.com/pWD5opRxcy

— The Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability (@RHNuk) March 16, 2022

John has been doing Expiratory Muscle Strength Training (EMST) to help with his swallow rehabilitation. He recently had a cup of coffee for the first time in 9 months and described it as ‘out of this world’. pic.twitter.com/sx16Z5YCS2

— The Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability (@RHNuk) March 16, 2022