Last month, our Lead Speech and Language Therapist, Jo Holder attended the ARCOS (Association for Rehabilitation of Communication and Oral Skills) F.O.T.T (Facial Oral Tract Therapy) training course in Great Malvern, Worcestershire.
The courses are designed to provide an understanding of Facial Oral Tract Therapy for doctors, therapists, nurses, and others involved in the rehabilitation of people with a brain injury that causes facial oral tract problems, including difficulties with eating and drinking, breathing, voice and speech.
On completion of the course, Jo said, “This course is incredibly relevant for the entire case load that the speech and language therapy and IDT hold at STEPS. We work with a range of clients, from brain injury, strokes, spinal cord injuries and progressive neurological conditions. The elements from this course are applicable to all of those clients, whatever stage they’re at, in regard to their rehabilitation journey, we’ll also be recommending for those clients discharged form STEPS, that this treatment approach is incorporated into their ongoing rehabilitation and maintenance once they’re at home. This training is incredibly practical, throughout the training we do a little bit of theory and then immediately apply that into practical scenarios. What’s really good, is that we can bring in our own caseload examples, so all of us have been thinking about the different clinical situations we have in our own places of work, so we’re able to bring those and apply the skills we’re learning directly. The feedback from the trainers enhances our own practice and handling skills.”
You can see more information about the ARCOS F.O.T.T course here.
In a recent article, Jo explored the importance of speech and language therapy as part of rehabilitation, and also her role at STEPS. You can read her article here.
Meet our speech and language therapists here.