YuLin Zhen, Photographer Editor

For many years, the Speech and Swallow Center at Yale has been the “experts of voice” for undergraduate and professional school students at Yale, per Dr. Nwanmegha Young, an ​​associate professor of surgery, specializing in otolaryngology, and program director for the Speech and Swallow Center at Yale. 

The center offers specialized care in the diagnosis and treatment of voice airways and swallowing disorders. Patients with voice disorders may sound hoarse due to a vocal fold becoming paralyzed, age-related changes of the vocal folds or just because they learned to use their voice in an inefficient way, John Gerrity, a speech-language pathologist at the center, told the News. 

“A great deal of patients who I work with tell me that before they started receiving treatment, they thought that speech pathologists only provided services in school for articulation and fluency disorders,” Gerrity told the News. “Those are very important areas of intervention, but they are only a small part of what SLPs do.”

Speech-language pathologists also evaluate and treat patients who benefit from services in the areas of receptive and expressive language, cognition, aural rehabilitation, social communication, swallowing, voice and alternative methods of communication, per Gerrity. The center works with patients of all ages and strives to provide services which help patients reach functional goals that improve their quality of life. 

Lynn Acton, a lecturer of surgery specializing in otolaryngology, told the News about the steps the center takes to make access to the center accessible to both undergraduate and professional school students. While they do recommend that students come to the center in person for their first appointment, they have also expanded their services to “video visits” after the pandemic. Their expansion reflects a shift toward an increase in telehealth services across the field of speech-language pathology. 

The faculty of the center also discussed some of the most rewarding aspects of their work at the center.

“We have the common goal of getting people’s voices back.” Acton told the News. “It’s great to see the huge difference made on people after coming to the center. They come in and they’re smiling and able to talk to their families. That’s what I like best about this aspect of the field.”

With October being Disability Employment Awareness Month, the center also emphasized the importance of advocacy and education on speech–language disorders, as well as their outlook toward innovation and improving.

“We participate in national conferences, and also try to do research on certain projects to learn more about and advance the field,” Young told the News. “It is a lifelong process of learning.”

Young is one of the only otolaryngologists in the state of Connecticut who has accreditation and works in gender affirming voice, helping patients align their voice with their gender identity. Acton is also currently taking a course on it. They told the News that part of their work is also coming up with new and innovative research topics, trying to figure out things in the field of speech–language pathology that “haven’t been talked about yet.”

Gerrity also emphasized the importance of speech–language pathologists not only being care specialists, but “advocates” for their patients, especially when it comes to patients who oftentimes have difficulty communicating.  

Young and Acton acknowledged that there is still much work to be done in informing students and others about speech–language pathology services. Although they have a close relationship with undergraduate students in the Music and Drama school, they told the News that making others aware of these resources is a top priority for them. Community outreach, networking with physicians and other providers in the area, and putting a spotlight on the services they offer make it easier for patients to find our services, according to Gerrity.

“In our field, we have the opportunity to make a meaningful and lasting impact on our patients, and that isn’t limited to the services we provide in the treatment room,” Gerrity told the News. “When we advocate for our patients, we are giving them the tools they can use to become their own advocates. That empowerment and independence matters.”

Yale Otolaryngology is located at 330 Cedar St.

LANDON BISHOP
Landon Bishop covers Accessibility at Yale. From Louisiana, he is a sophomore in Benjamin Franklin College majoring in Urban Studies and Ethics, Politics, and Economics.