Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha Elandary.
Hi Samantha, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
In the late 1990s, I was working in a hospital as a speech-language pathologist. I was amazed that people with Parkinson’s responded so well to speech therapy. In just a few weeks, my patients could be heard and understood. They could talk on the phone again and order their own food at restaurants. It was pretty exciting. However, over time, I recognized that these same patients struggled to retain the improvements they had made. If they missed even three days of speech practice, their voices would become softer, and their swallowing would become compromised. Imagine how difficult that must have been for people with Parkinson’s – to make such improvements and then regress so quickly. I started on a journey to figure out if there was a way to help someone with a progressive, degenerative disease like Parkinson’s hold on to the speech improvements made in therapy. Initially, I treated individuals with Parkinson’s in my home. At one point, I had 70 patients in my living room, dining room, breakfast room, and even the back office. In 2005, I founded Parkinson Voice Project, a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization. In 2010, my team of speech-language pathologists developed our SPEAK OUT! Therapy Program that helps people with Parkinson’s not just REGAIN their speech and swallowing abilities but, RETAIN these skills for a lifetime.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. I was trying to build a program that didn’t exist yet. There were a lot of trials and errors. After all, trying to create a speech therapy program that could battle the progressive nature of Parkinson’s was quite a challenge. I was told many times that it couldn’t be done. Parkinson Voice Project is a nonprofit organization that provides SPEAK OUT! Therapy in our Texas clinic and trains speech-language pathologists and graduate students worldwide. We want every person with Parkinson’s to have access to our SPEAK OUT! Therapy Program.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Parkinson Voice Project ?
Parkinson Voice Project is the only nonprofit organization in the world solely dedicated to improving speech and swallowing in Parkinson’s and related disorders. This is surprising since the main cause of death in the Parkinson’s population is aspiration pneumonia resulting from swallowing complications. While other Parkinson’s organizations search for a cure, Parkinson Voice Project is helping people living with Parkinson’s and their families right now.
My team at Parkinson Voice Project developed the SPEAK OUT! Therapy Program. It’s a comprehensive speech therapy program that combines individual speech therapy, weekly classes, daily home practice, and regular follow-ups. The goal is to help people with Parkinson’s regain and retain their speech and swallowing for life.
Parkinson Voice Project is unique in that we haven’t charged for our speech therapy services since 2008. We don’t bill Medicare or insurance either. Our program is funded using a Pay It Forward model. Patients receive all the speech therapy they need at our Texas clinic and are later given an opportunity to Pay It Forward – make a donation to help the next patient who needs SPEAK OUT! Therapy.
Besides treating people with Parkinson’s, I am most proud that Parkinson Voice Project is training Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Students worldwide. These are future clinicians who will be working with people with Parkinson’s and their families in hospitals, rehab centers, and other clinics around the world. Last year, we trained over 4,300 students!
At Parkinson Voice Project, our motto is, “We’re in it with you for the long haul.” Our SPEAK OUT! Therapy Program isn’t just about improving speech and swallowing for a month, a year, or even five years. We help people with Parkinson’s throughout every stage of their disease… all the way to the end.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is that persistence, paired with purpose, can change lives. When I started this journey 20 years ago, I never imagined that Parkinson Voice Project would one day have a global impact, but here we are. Every day, people with Parkinson’s around the world participate in our online SPEAK OUT! Home Practice Sessions hosted on our website. Our SPEAK OUT! materials have been translated into 13 languages. We’ve trained speech-language pathologists and graduate students across the U.S. and more than 40 other countries. Thanks to our generous donors and the support and encouragement of many, people with Parkinson’s all over the world are benefiting from a program that started in my living room.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://parkinsonvoiceproject.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parkinsonvoiceproject/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParkinsonVoiceProject
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/parkinson-voice-project
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ParkinsonVoiceProject
- Other: https://parkinsonvoiceproject.org/program/parkinsons-speech-exercises/
