Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) - Northern services

The service comprises three components:

• Adult acute and outpatient services at NDDH
• Adult community services for inpatients, community rehabilitation and outpatients
• Adult learning disability services

Our service is provided to people who are in-patients at the North Devon District Hospital and South Molton Hospital.

We also work with people through out-patient appointments, home and nursing/care home visits, and through video consultations.

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.

Speech and Language in-patient and out-patient Teams

Jubilee Offices

Level 0

North Devon District Hospital

Raleigh Park

Barnstaple

EX31 4JB

01271 322388

Speech and Language Community Team

Barnstaple Health Centre

Vicarage Street

Barnstaple

EX32 7BH

01271 340524

Speech and Language Therapy Adult Learning Disability Team

01271 443188

Speech and Language Therapy Administration Team

01271 341557

07552 254569

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.

• Ace Centre website
• Alzheimer’s Society
• Headway – The Brain Injury Association
• Living with Aphasia
• Macmillan Cancer Support
• Motor Neurone Disease Association
• Parkinson’s UK
• Stroke Association
• The British Voice Association

• Aphasia – Aphasia friendly
• Dysphonia and keeping a healthy voice
• Eating and Drinking Accepting Risk – Aphasia friendly
• Eating and/or drinking accepting risk
• Fibreoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing (FEES)
• Guide to communication difficulties
• SALT Adult Learning Disability Service (easy read)
• Speech and language therapy adult service
• Swallowing difficulties (dysphagia)
• Swallowing difficulties (dysphagia) – Aphasia friendly
• Videofluoroscopy (easy read)
• Videofluoroscopy - easy read pictures to support consent
• Videofluoroscopy (VFS)

If you are a healthcare professional and would like to discuss making a referral to our service, please contact us on 01271 341557 or 01271 322388

• Internal referrals to speech and language are made via EPIC.
• GP referrals are made via eRS
• Referrals to the Adult learning disability team are made via the Intensive Assessment and Treatment Team (IATT), Devon Partnership Trust
• Please note that patients with voice disorders must be seen by ENT before they are referred.