04KMH002
Funded Project - Normal Project
Speech therapy program for cleft palate patients in the peripheral sites of Nepal
After the completion of the speech therapy training in the beginning of January 2005, four paramedics/nurses will be posted in the peripheral sites to provide the speech therapy on a more regular basis.
Several peripheral sites in Nepal
One year starting from January 1, 2005
Exhibition Road, Kathmandu, Nepal
Shankar Man Rai
Telephone (Voice): 009810-51750, (Office): 00977-1-4240806
ShankarRaihotmail.com
Aruna Pant
ArunaPantanmf.net
Libby Wilson, MD
LibbyWilsonanmf.net
1. Background
America Nepal Medical Foundation has been supporting a year-long training of paramedics in speech therapy for cleft palate patients since January 2004 at Kathmandu Model Hospital, Nepal. Four paramedics/nurses are undergoing this training in basic speech therapy for cleft palate patients so that they will be able to provide this much needed service out in the periphery where most of our cleft patients come from. More than 800 cleft palate patients have been operated free of cost by Interplast Surgical Outreach Program with Smile Train now based at the Kathmandu Model Hospital. Interplast, USA has been providing the funding support for speech therapy to these patients at different peripheral sites 6 times a year for a week. Cleft palate patients who had already undergone palate surgery are called with their parents/guardians to spend the whole week with the speech therapists. Food and lodging is provided to them for that duration. One or two speech therapists provide their service to all the patients during the whole week. These week long camps have been organized in smaller towns outside Kathmandu. Unfortunately, six camps a year do not provide adequate therapy for all the patients spread all over the country.
2. Proposal
After the completion of the speech therapy training in the beginning of January 2005, these four paramedics/nurses will be posted in the peripheral sites to provide the speech therapy on a more regular basis. Each paramedic/nurse will cover two sites a month, spending two weeks at each site. Thus, four of them will cover eight sites a month over the whole year. Wherever the children needing therapy are in schools, the paramedics will visit them there as far as possible and provide therapy.
All four paramedics will be visited by the faculty speech doctor (attending speech pathologist) every two months for supervision and guidance for at least two days. One speech faculty will be able to cover all eight sites in a month. He/she will assess, diagnose, and formulate a plan for speech therapy for each patient with the paramedic. The plan will be executed by the paramedics who stays in the community. The faculty will also re-enforce the training and education of the paramedics. All the activities , assessment and plans will be documented both by the faculty and the paramedics.
Every three months, all the paramedics will spend a week in a group with the faculty speech therapists for continuing education /training in speech therapy( lectures, demonstrations, case studies, presentations, etc).
To make the speech therapy available to the poor people in the peripheral sites on a more regular basis, paramedics (CMAs, ANMs, AHWs, etc) trained in basic speech therapy for cleft patients will thus travel and stay in these peripheral sites closer to the homes of our patients and provide the speech therapy under intermittent supervision of qualified speech therapists.
Thus, this program will a) take the speech therapy service to the peripheral sites closer to the homes of the patients, b) continue the training/education of the four paramedics in speech therapy.
None
None
Advisors:
Shankar Man Rai, Plastic Surgeon, Kathmandu Model Hospital
Basant Mathema, Plastic Surgeon, Kathmandu Model Hospital
Instructors:
Bhawani Pradhan, Speech Pathologist and Audiologist
Rosie Slater, Speech Therapist
None
Stipend for paramedics:
$100/month/paramedic for one year =100 X 4 X 12 (including for food, lodging, travel) = $4,800
Remuneration to the Speech Therapy Faculty:
$500/month X 6 times a year = $3,000
$200 (educational materials, stationery, sound recording, documentations)
$8,000
None
Duration of the Program:
For one year starting from January 2005. An evaluation by ANMF, Nepal will be requested and depending on its recommendation, a further funding for the continuation of the program may be requested for the subsequent years.
Additional Information:
To give the full benefit of the cleft palate surgery, especially when the surgery is done in an age above the ideal one (12months) , post operative speech therapy is very important. The therapy has to be protracted to be of any benefit. Since most of our patients are coming from the periphery, it is essential that the service is available to them at a place nearer to their homes. The small number of speech pathologists in Nepal has been a limiting factor for speech therapy service available to the majority who need them. The necessity of training the paramedics in post palate surgery speech therapy was recognized and a year-long training of four paramedics since January 2004 has been funded generously by the America Nepal Medical Foundation. The aim of training has been to make the paramedics able to assist the speech pathologists who will diagnose and formulate a therapy plan which could be carried out by the trained paramedics under intermittent supervision of the pathologists.
Funding support for having four such trained paramedics provide the therapy in the periphery sites with intermittent supervision and support from the speech pathologists every two months is being sought for.
If you wish to make a contribution to Kathmandu Model Hospital, please go to Donate and specify that your donation is targeted to Kathmandu Model Hospital.
Thank you!