Living With Dysphagia: Quality of Life in Patients and
Caregivers (Recorded Webinar)
Presented by Angela Mansolillo
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Nonfinancial: Angela Mansolillo is a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. She has no competing nonfinancial interests or relationships with regard to the content presented in this course.
This course is a recording of a previously hosted live webinar event. Polling and question submission features are not available for this recording. Format and structure may differ from standard MedBridge courses.
Every day, dysphagia clinicians are asked to make decisions about what is best for our clients with swallowing impairments. But what happens when there is no best answer? We often consider swallow physiology, safety, and aspiration risk, but not always how our recommendations will impact quality of life for our clients and their caregivers. This course will provide you with tools to assess swallow-related quality of life, to conduct assessments that consider real-world impacts, and to facilitate autonomous decision-making in your clients. Sometimes only your client can decide what really is best.
Meet your instructor
Angela Mansolillo
Angela Mansolillo is a speech-language pathologist and board-certified specialist in swallowing disorders with more than 25 years of experience. She is currently a senior speech-language pathologist at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she provides evaluation and treatment services for adults and…
Chapters & learning objectives
1. Dysphagia: The Invisible Disorder
People with dysphagia often describe themselves as invisible and isolated. This chapter will examine the prevalence and public awareness (or lack thereof) of swallowing disorders.
2. The Impact of Dysphagia: The Patient’s Experience
Dysphagia clinicians typically develop treatment plans to address the physical impacts of the disorder, but the effects of dysphagia go beyond the physical. This chapter will discuss the potential physical and, at times, more debilitating, social impacts of dysphagia.
3. The Impact of Dysphagia: The Caregiver Burden
This chapter will examine “third-party disability”— the impact of an impairment on family members and significant others.
4. Putting the “Function” in Functional Assessment of Swallowing
Expand your assessment protocol beyond physical impairments. What is your client’s potential for adherence? Health literacy? How does your client perform in real-life situations?
5. Listening to Our Clients: Using Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs)
What would your clients and their caregivers tell you about their swallow impairments if they could? This chapter will examine patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) to allow you to choose the right one for your practice.
6. Weighing the Pros and Cons
What really is the best diet? No dysphagia diet recommendation is without its risks as well as benefits. We will discuss the pros and cons of diet recommendations to enable our clients to decide what is best for them.
7. Helping Clients Help Themselves
Looking for ways to get your clients more involved in their own care? This chapter will provide tools to facilitate truly autonomous decision-making in our clients.
8. But It’s the Law
What exactly does the law say about decision-making, informed consent, and the right to refuse care? Let’s talk about these legal principles as they apply to dysphagia care.
9. Health Literacy
This chapter will conclude our webinar by providing tools to facilitate health literacy in our clients. Clients make better decisions when they understand the information provided and can navigate the health system more effectively.
10. Question and Answer Session
This is a viewer-submitted question and answer session, which will be facilitated by Angela Mansolillo.