At Warrington Hospital and out in Warrington community we provide assessment and, if appropriate, therapy programmes, support and advice for people who have acquired difficulties with communication and/or swallowing. Difficulties with swallowing are called Dysphagia.
We work in the following areas:
Inpatients – on the hospital wards we work with people who have acute swallowing and/or communication difficulties, caused by a wide range of neurological problems. We work with the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) to support decisions with regards to safe feeding. In some cases we also work with patients to support their communication skills. If you are concerned about somebody with a new onset communication or swallow disorder, please give us a call.
Stroke Unit (B14) – we work with people who have swallowing and/or communication difficulties as a result of stroke. Communication difficulties that may occur as a result of stroke include:
- Dysphasia – difficulties with spoken language, understanding, reading and writing
- Dysarthria – difficulty with speech caused by a weakness of the muscles required for speech
- Dyspraxia – difficulty with co-ordinating muscles to make the sounds needed for clear speech
Community – we work with Warrington residents in their own homes and in residential/nursing homes who have swallowing and/or communication difficulties as a result of stroke, head and neck cancer, Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) and/or progressive disorders such as Motor Neurone Disease (MND), Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Multiple Sclerosis (MS) & Huntington's Disease (HD), to name a few.
We are not currently funded to provide a service to individuals with communication difficulties as a result of Dementia.
Voice – we see people with voice disorders i.e. hoarse voice, loss of voice known as dysphonia, as outpatients in the hospital for assessment and, if appropriate, therapy programmes, support and advice. We also provide therapy to people who have had a laryngectomy (voice box removed due to cancer) and clients going through the gender re-assignment process.
Stammering- patients with dysfluent speech are seen in an outpatient clinic at Health Services at Warrington Wolves.
We’re a very small team, comprising of Speech and Language Therapists, a Speech and Language Therapy Assistant and Admin staff. We cover both Warrington hospital and community, and most of our therapists cover multiple clinical areas. All of our therapists are registered with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT).
Fax referrals to- SLT 01925 662 923
Email referrals to- whh.slt@nhs.net
Post referrals to-
Adult Speech and Language Therapy Team, Second floor, Lancashire House Warrington Hospital, WA5 1QG
For children’s Speech and Language Therapy service please call: 01925 251 389
For the adults with learning difficulties (ALD) Speech and Language Therapy service please call: 01744 457 278