SSM Health Rehabilitation Hospital - Bridgeton Awarded 2021 Speak Out! & Loud Crowd Grant

Provides Training and Supplies for Speech Language Therapists Treating Parkinson's Patients

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Nov 04, 2021, 10:30 ET

BRIDGETON, Mo., Nov. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SSM Health Rehabilitation Hospital in Bridgeton, MO was awarded a grant by the Parkinson Voice Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The 2021 Speak Out! & Loud Crowd Grant Program, provides specialized training for therapists who treat people with Parkinson's disease.

Under the grant, SSM Health Rehabilitation Hospital will receive free training for its speech-language pathologists and graduate students as well as therapy supplies. The hospital will offer the Parkinson Voice Project's speech therapy program to its patients in the greater St. Louis community. Speak Out! is a therapy regimen tailored to people with Parkinson's disease to improve their voice and swallowing ability. Loud Crowd is the group therapy component of the program allowing patients to maintain the skills obtained with Speak Out!

"We are pleased to have been awarded this grant as we are constantly seeking to advance the knowledge and skills of our clinical staff and offer programs to meet the needs of our patients and community at large," said Dana Read, director of rehabilitation at SSM Health Rehabilitation Hospital - Bridgeton.

"Up to 90 percent of people with Parkinson's are at high risk of losing their ability to speak, and swallowing complications account for 70 percent of the mortality rate in this patient population. Our vision at Parkinson Voice Project is to make our highly effective speech therapy program accessible to people with Parkinson's worldwide," said Parkinson Voice Project's Founder and CEO Samantha Elandary.

SSM Health Rehabilitation Hospital, a joint venture partnership between Select Medical and SSM Health, provides highly specialized care, advanced treatment and leading-edge technologies that help individuals rebuild their lives following injury or illness.

About Select Medical
Select Medical is one of the largest operators of critical illness recovery hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, outpatient rehabilitation clinics, and occupational health centers in the United States based on number of facilities. As of September 30, 2020, Select Medical operated 100 critical illness recovery hospitals in 28 states, 30 rehabilitation hospitals in 12 states, and 1,850 outpatient rehabilitation clinics in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Select Medical's joint venture subsidiary Concentra operated 519 occupational health centers in 41 states. Concentra also provides contract services at employer worksites. As of September 30, 2020, Select Medical had operations in 46 states and the District of Columbia. Information about Select Medical is available at www.selectmedical.com.

About Parkinson Voice Project
Parkinson Voice Project is the only 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the world solely dedicated to helping individuals with Parkinson's improve their speech and swallowing. The organization runs a speech therapy clinic in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and hosts the World's Largest Parkinson's Chorus. Parkinson Voice Project's hosts daily online speech practice sessions to support and encourage people with Parkinson's globally. These sessions are available on the organization's website at www.ParkinsonVoiceProject.org. Parkinson Voice Project has trained more than 3500 speech-language pathologists in its SPEAK OUT! & LOUD Crowd program, including clinicians in Australia, Canada, Israel, Italy, Greece, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.

Media Contact
Mary Leddy, [email protected] or 717-972-8150

SOURCE Select Medical Corporation