Smile Train Guyana, in collaboration with Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), last week hosted an unprecedented intensive Cleft Palate Speech Therapy Training programme for local speech therapists and rehabilitation assistants in Guyana, a release from the GPH stated.
Smile Train is the world’s largest cleft-focused organisation, with a sustainable and local model of supporting surgery and other forms of essential care. Over the last 25 years, it has supported safe, high-quality, and free cleft care for over two million children.
This first-of-its-kind training, the release explained, took place from July 21 to 26, and brought together representatives from the David Rose School for the Handicapped, Palm’s Rehabilitation Clinic, Diamond Special Needs Speech Therapy and Audiology Centre, Ministry of Education Diagnostic Centre, Ptolemy Reid Centre, Fort Wellington Hospital, and Lethem Regional Hospital.
As a result, a total of nine therapists and four rehabilitation assistants were trained, including one rehabilitation assistant and two speech-language therapists from Georgetown Public Hospital’s Speech Therapy Department.
According to the GPH, this initiative stemmed from a similar training exercise attended by four Guyanese representatives that was held in Barbados earlier this year. It was during this training that the idea was conceived to invite Dr Catherine Crowley, a renowned Speech-Language Pathologist and Professor of Practice at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, to conduct this training in Guyana. Dr Crowley, who also serves on Smile Train’s Global Medical Advisory Board, brought her extensive expertise to local therapists. She was supported by 10 graduate students from Columbia University who volunteered their time and expertise during the training.
The release emphasised that the training aimed not only to build the capacity of local professionals in diagnosing and treating cleft palate speech issues, but also to enable these therapists to train their peers from other regions who could not attend. Rehabilitation assistants are currently placed at health facilities across all 10 regions of Guyana, providing physical, occupational, and speech therapy. However, dedicated speech-language therapists are present only in regions Four, Five, and Ten, it was explained.
Further, during the training, 10 patients who had undergone cleft palate surgeries attended with their parents and benefited from two daily 45-minute therapy sessions. Remarkably, two patients were discharged after demonstrating competency in their therapy sessions. This initiative ensures that both children and adults who have had cleft palate surgeries, as well as those who have lost their speech capacity due to conditions like tracheostomy or swallowing disorders, can benefit from the expertise of the newly trained therapists and assistants.
Speech therapy is crucial for beneficiaries of cleft palate repairs, helping them use their new palate to produce new sounds and correct habitual speech errors. The release said Dr Crowley emphasised that while surgical interventions for cleft palate repairs are life-changing, patients need speech therapy to effectively use their new palate. Ideally, patients who have undergone cleft palate repairs require 12 weeks to a year of quality speech therapy to fully restore their speech capabilities.
To date, 46 cleft palate repairs have been performed at the Georgetown Public Hospital via Smile Train Guyana. In addition to surgical intervention, GPH provides nutritional and psychological support to all patients and their families for postoperative care at home, along with speech therapy, and remains committed to providing holistic cleft care to the people of Guyana, the release added
