Expert Advisor Speaker Series #1 Dr Anna Miles – Functional Dysphagia: Beyond the Medical Model
Don’t miss this opportunity to deepen your understanding of functional dysphagia and gain tools to deliver more holistic, person-centred care.
Functional Dysphagia: Beyond the Medical Model and Considering Psychosocial Aspects of Dysphagia
A normal instrumental assessment of the oropharynx and oesophagus may rule out a biomedical cause to a client's swallowing difficulties. However, functional dysphagia is a complex clinical condition with a significant impact on clients’ physical health as well as psychosocial wellbeing and quality of life. Client presentations can be vastly different yet, for many, good outcomes and return to normal eating can be achieved with targeted therapy. Some clients with generalised psychological conditions may benefit from speech-language therapy and clinical psychology therapies combined. Some clients may have biomedical causes to some of their swallowing difficulties that need co-management.
The field of dysphagia should reflect on its biomedical bias in the definition and diagnosis of dysphagia. With the support of case examples, learnings from fields of laryngology and cognitive and applied behavioural psychology will be discussed; and a biopsychosocial framework for assessment and therapy proposed. The proposed framework supports clinicians to understand their client’s individual condition allowing comprehensive assessment and targeted interventions. Whilst large scale randomised clinical efficacy trials do not exist—and may not be feasible or useful, clinicians can learn from associated fields and confidently develop pragmatic therapy programmes for their clients.
About the Speaker:
Dr Anna Miles
Associate Professor, The University of Auckland
NZSTA Expert Adviser – Adult Dysphagia
Dr Anna Miles is a practising speech-language with 25+ years of experience working in the acute and community setting. Anna is an associate professor at The University of Auckland. She is a researcher, lecturer and clinician in the area of voice and swallowing disorders. Dr Miles has 150+ peer reviewed publications. She is the New Zealand Speech-language Therapists’ Association Expert Adviser in Adult Dysphagia, active member of the Dysphagia Research Society and has been awarded ASHA Fellow for her contributions to research, clinical teaching and international service.
Registration:
- Free for NZSTA members - register here
- $25 incl. GST for non-members - email admin@speechtherapy.org.nz to book your place.
This webinar will be recorded and made available on the NZSTA Professional Development page for members.