Dysphagia Awareness Campaign

Olivia Hallam, Rosa Holden and Joanne White are third year Speech and Language Therapy students from De Montfort University. Here they explain their participation in a campaign to increase awareness of dysphagia.

We will be spending five days following a sponsored ‘modified diet’ to raise awareness of swallowing difficulties (dysphagia). This means that we will only be eating ‘soft consistency’ foods (mainly purée, with added examples of a fork-mashable diet) and drinking thickened fluids (to Stage 1, Syrup consistency). . This is because, as speech and language therapists, we often work with people with dysphagia and have realised that both the level awareness and availability of resources are low.

See our short promotional video here where we explain more:

We will be updating our blogs and YouTube accounts to let you know how we’re getting along. We are also making cookery tutorials focussing on how to make a modified diet more palatable. This should be of particular use to service users, their families, and health care professionals working with dysphagia. Students in the Leicestershire area have also been invited to a conference we’re holding within the university to learn more about dysphagia.

To find out more please visit:
http://ohallamdysphagiaawareness.wordpress.com
http://dysphagiaawarenessrholden.wordpress.com
http://jowhitesltstudent.blogspot.co.uk

We have also set up a Just Giving page to gain sponsorship for Dementia UK (in compliance with the ‘Giving Voice for People with Dementia’ campaign).