Speech and Language Therapists - Eastern services

Speech and language therapists (SLTs) provide life-improving treatment, support and care for people who have difficulties with communication, eating, drinking or swallowing.

Our service provides assessment, diagnosis, treatment and advice to help people reach and maintain their best level of communication and/or swallowing, increase independence, and live to their full potential.

Using specialist skills, our team works directly with people and their families and carers to provide them with tailored support. We also work closely with other health care professionals including doctors, nurses, psychologists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists to develop individual treatment programmes.

More about us

Our service is provided to people who are in-patients at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (Wonford), Mardon Neurorehabilitation Centre, Tiverton and District Hospital, Exmouth Hospital and Sidmouth Victoria Hospital.

We also work with people in the community through out-patient appointments, in their own homes, and in nursing and care homes.

Our specialist teams work with people affected by a wide range of acquired conditions, including:

Stroke
Head injury
Progressive neurological conditions, such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease and motor neurone disease
Other neurological conditions
Cancer, particularly of the head and/or neck
Voice disorders
Respiratory conditions
Age-related conditions
Conditions requiring surgery and/or intensive care

We also have a service for people with a:

Learning disability
Stammer

If you have difficulties with communication and/or swallowing and you think you might benefit from seeing a speech and language therapist, you can discuss this with your GP or another healthcare professional involved in your care, who can then refer you to our service for an appointment.

Services and treatments

Our team will work with you and your family to identify what is important to you about your communication and/or swallowing, and devise a tailored plan to help you to achieve the best possible outcome.

Intervention may involve:

Improving the intelligibility of your speech
Improving the quality of your voice
Improving understanding of spoken and written language
Improving production of spoken and written language
Providing or recommending alternative means of communication
Improving your overall ability to communicate with others
Providing exercises to strengthen the muscles involved in swallowing
Recommending strategies to help you to swallow more efficiently and comfortably
Recommending different food textures and/or drink consistencies to help you to swallow more comfortably
Helping you to adapt to changes in your communication and/or swallowing and manage them in the best way possible

We will provide intervention that is specific to you, taking into account your wishes and the nature and cause of your difficulties. Not all of the above interventions are appropriate for all medical conditions.