Bothwell Certified in LSVT LOUD Therapy Techniques for Parkinson’s Patients

  • October 06, 2014

Brookings Health Now Offers Comprehensive Parkinson’s Disease Rehabilitative Services

Lindsey Bothwell
Lindsey Bothwell

Speech-Language Pathologist Lindsey Bothwell has been certified to administer LSVT LOUD® therapy, a revolutionary program that empowers people with Parkinson’s disease to make their speech understood. It will be offered as a treatment option at Brookings Health beginning in mid to late October.

LSVT LOUD® is an effective speech treatment for individuals with Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions. It improves vocal loudness by stimulating voice box muscles and the speech mechanism through a series of exercises. Focused on speaking loudly, the treatment improves respiratory, voice box and pronunciation function to maximize speech understandability.

“The treatment doesn’t train people to shout or yell,” says Bothwell. “LSVT LOUD uses loudness training to bring a person’s voice to an improved, healthy vocal loudness with no strain.”

Research shows improvements in vocal loudness, intonation, and voice quality for individuals with Parkinson’s who received LSVT LOUD, with improvements maintained up to two years after treatment. Research has also shown therapy effectively improves the common problems of disordered articulation, diminished facial expression and impaired swallowing.

Treatment consists of 16 one-hour sessions, four consecutive days a week for a single month. This intensive therapy is critical to attaining optimal results.

Bothwell’s certification now allows Brookings Health System to offer comprehensive rehabilitative services for Parkinson’s disease patients focused on speech, physical and occupational therapy. Last fall Brookings Health System began offering LSVT BIG therapy, a research-based exercise approach in which physical and occupational therapists work with Parkinson’s patients in an intensive, whole body amplitude-based training.

For more information on how you or a loved one may benefit from Parkinson’s therapy or any other rehab service at Brookings Health System, please visit www.brookingshealth.org/therapy or call (605) 696-8821.

About Brookings Health System

Brookings Health System, located in Brookings, South Dakota, includes a 49-bed hospital, the 79-bed The Neighborhoods at Brookview nursing home, Brookhaven Estates senior living apartments, Yorkshire Eye Clinic, Arlington Medical Center and White Medical Clinic. It is a non-profit, city-owned facility that offers the community a full range of inpatient, outpatient, surgical and extended care services. The emergency room is staffed 24 hours a day and provides around the clock patient needs ranging from minor injuries to life threatening crises. For more information about the services offered at Brookings Health System, please call (605) 696-9000 or visit us on the Web at brookingshealth.org.