The Parkinson Voice Project selected UMD’s Robert F. Pierce (RFP) Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic to be its SPEAK OUT! Therapy & Research Center for Minnesota. This includes technical support and a $50,000 award.

April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month. A month dedicated to learning about and supporting the 1 million Americans who have the neurodegenerative disease that can affect speech, movement and swallowing.

The RFP clinic has been expanding services to people with Parkinson's disease over the past two years. Samantha Burlingame, a clinical instructor in the UMD Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD), received a grant from the Parkinson Voice Project last year to train students and staff in its SPEAK OUT! Therapy. 

The initial grant enabled the clinic to begin to offer free, specialized services to those with Parkinson’s. CSD graduate students assist with the individual and group therapy, gaining valuable experience for their future careers.

The services have been popular. Twenty-one percent of clients who receive services from the RFP clinic have Parkinson’s—up from zero two years ago. The clinic provides virtual and in-person individual sessions and runs weekly group therapy sessions for the community. Group sessions provide a community-building aspect and help connect people living with Parkinson’s disease all over the state. 

The new grant is designated for research related to the Parkinson Voice Project’s SPEAK OUT! Therapy. The Texas-based nonprofit’s $20 million Campaign to Reach America aims to institute a research center in every state through collaborations with university speech clinics. The idea is to increase accessibility to therapy for those with Parkinson’s. Free online therapy eliminates financial and transportation barriers. In addition, the university partnerships enable hands-on training for future professionals.

Burlingame says one area of UMD research will focus on fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) to determine whether the therapy actually changes a client’s swallow functioning. The goal is to get IRB approval for the study in the fall and begin recruiting participants in the spring. Professor Mark Mizuko and Clinical Instructor Ashley Weber are co-investigators on the project.

The goal is for the clinic to be able to take on 25 new patients per year. Some services will be provided via teletherapy to help increase access in rural communities. “For those who have a progressive illness like Parkinson’s in our region, it may be difficult to afford and access speech therapy,” she says. “We hope to be a resource to our greater Minnesota and Wisconsin communities by helping anyone access care and reduce the burden of travel when able.”