I am so excited to bring you a brand new article, complete with videos and a handout, to help medical SLPs improve their care for Black stroke survivors in an effort to increase cultural competence in our nearly all-white field.
Cultural competence "is as important to the successful provision of services as are scientific, technical, and clinical knowledge and skills", according to the ASHA Code of Ethics.
My own experience with Black culture is fairly limited, so in an effort to improve my own cultural competence as a clinician, I sought out an expert in our field to help me better understand what I can do to help Black stroke survivors have the best outcomes in speech therapy.
Over the past month, I've been talking with Dr. Davetrina Seles Gadson, PhD, CCC-SLP to learn about health disparities. We talked about what white clinicians should know when doing assessments, setting goals, and providing treatment. She helped me learn how to better understand my own biases. And now I can share that information with you!
Please take 8 minutes to read our new article: Improving Cultural Competence: Better Serving the Needs of African American and Black Stroke Survivors in Speech Pathology.
| Read the Article |
Watch the videos to hear first-hand what Dr. Gadson recommends, and download the PDF handout to get 10 actionable steps that you can take to improve your practice.
| Download Handout |
I hope this information, along with all of the wonderful resources out there this Black History Month and all year long, help to improve care for our patients.
The biggest take-away for me was that the things that help Black stroke survivors hold true for ALL stroke survivors:
Thank you for being open to learning and sharing,
-Megan
We're a speech therapy software company making evidence-based treatment for adults with stroke, brain injury, and other conditions more accessible.
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