Speech Language Therapy

What we do

Speech-language Therapists will assess and treat disorders of communication and swallowing. Speech-language Therapists work in many services across our DHB and provide treatment to patients in hospital as well as providing outpatient clinics and visiting patients at home.

Speech-language therapists manage communication disorders in adults, including difficulty with expressing or understanding language, unclear speech, and voice problems. They also assess and treat swallowing and feeding problems in adults, children and infants.

Signs of swallowing difficulties in adults include: coughing or choking when eating, recent weight loss or failure to gain weight, complaints of discomfort when eating, difficulty getting food down, or recurrent chest infections.

Communication and/or swallowing problems in adults may be caused by:

Stroke
Traumatic brain injury
Neurological conditions e.g. SAH (subarachnoid haemorrhage), brain tumour
Head and neck cancer
Dementia
Progressive neurological diseases e.g. MND (Motor Neurone Disease), Parkinson’s Disease, MS (Multiple Sclerosis)
Voice impairments (e.g. vocal nodules, vocal fold palsy)
Tracheostomy
COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)
Cardiac surgery

Signs of swallowing difficulties in infants and children include: refusal to eat or feed, having to be forced to feed, breath-holding or choking when feeding, coughing when feeding, noisy swallowing or breathing when feeding, failure to thrive or poor weight gain, or failure to progress across food textures as expected.

Swallowing problems in babies and children may be caused by:

Developmental conditions (e.g. Trisomy 21, cerebral palsy, autism)
Structural deficits (e.g. cleft palate)
Reflux/ Cow’s milk protein intolerance
Developmental delay
Negative early feeding experiences
Injury resulting from complications at birth
Behavioural challenges
Brain injury
Environmental factors (e.g. bottle teat used, position during feeding

More information on specific medical problems is available here

Referrals

Outpatient referrals

Referrals to our outpatient service need to come from a health professional, such as your GP or a specialist doctor.

Health professionals can refer to our Speech-language Therapy team by

Making an Ereferral (preferred) via MedTech – Select the discipline/s that you are requesting
Scanning and emailing a referral to the Booking Centre email: RES-PrimCareRef@ccdhb.org.nz

Please include any history pertaining to the referral and clear reasoning for the referral.

Community referrals

You can refer yourself to our service, but we prefer a referral by a health professional. To self refer please fill out this form and email to RES-OpBkOraChs@ccdhb.org.nz

To refer to Allied Health clinicians working in the community:

Make an Ereferral (preferred) via MedTech – Select the discipline/s that you are requesting
Scanning and emailing a referral to the Booking Centre email: RES-OpBkOraChs@ccdhb.org.nz

Exceptions

Children with speech and language delays or dysfluency/stutter should be referred to the Ministry of Education
Children with feeding or swallowing difficulties related to a recognised diagnosis or who have an overall developmental delay should be referred to the Child Development Team (cds.admin@ccdhb.org.nz).