Free Communication Tools for Patients with COVID-19

Today, we turn the reigns over to our friends and colleagues at the Patient-Provider Communication Network. If you work in healthcare or know someone who does, please share these critically important resources. If you know someone who is seriously ill with the coronavirus, make sure they have a means of communication should they have significant speech difficulties or need to be intubated. Everyone else, bookmark the Patient-Provider Communication website for future reference.

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FREE Communication Tools for Patients with COVID-19

When it’s hard to breathe, it can be hard to speak! In light of COVID-related respiratory illness, a greater number of people need breathing tubes or ventilator support, which takes away the ability to speak. Hospitals and healthcare workers need resources to support communication in alternative ways.

As a public service, the Patient-Provider Communication Forum, with support from the United States Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (USSAAC), is providing a FREE bank of communication tools for you to download and print, created in response to this COVID crisis.

Visit the Patient-Provider Communication Network at patientprovidercommunication.org.

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Many thanks to the Patient-Provider Communication Task Force:

• Tami Altschuler, MA, CCC-SLP, Speech-Language Pathologist,  Clinical Specialist in Patient-Provider Communication, Department of Speech-Language Pathology, NYU Langone Medical Center
• Sarah Gendreau, MS CCC-SLP, Adult Inpatient Speech-Language Pathologist, Department of Speech, Language, and Swallowing Disorders, Massachusetts General Hospital
• Jessica Gormley, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Assistant Professor, Speech-Language Pathology, Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center
• Mary Beth Happ, PhD, RN, FAAN, FGSA, Nursing Distinguished Professor of Critical Care Research, Associate Dean for Research & Innovation, The Ohio State University College of Nursing
• Richard Hurtig, Ph.D., ASHA Fellow, Director, The University of Iowa Assistive Devices Laboratory, Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, The University of Iowa, Chief Scientific Officer, Voxello
• Sarah Marshall, MA, CCC-SLP, Clinical Speech-Language Pathologist, Communication Aids and Systems Clinic (CASC), University of Wisconsin-Madison, Waisman Center Clinics UCEDD
• Rachel Santiago, MS, CCC-SLP, Speech-Language Pathologist, Clinical Coordinator, Inpatient Augmentative Communication Program, Department of Otolaryngology and Communication Enhancement, Boston Children’s Hospital
• Stephanie Scibilia, MS CCC-SLP, Adult Inpatient Speech-Language Pathologist, Department of Speech, Language, and Swallowing Disorders, Massachusetts General Hospital
• Judith A. Tate, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor, Center for Healthy Aging, Self-Management and Complex Care, The Ohio State University College of Nursing
• Rachel Toran Towbin, MS CCC-SLP, Adult Inpatient Speech-Language Pathologist, Department of Speech, Language, and Swallowing Disorders, Massachusetts General Hospital
• Sarah Blackstone, PhD, CCC-SLP, United States Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (USSAAC)
  Board of Directors/Co-Chair Disaster Relief Committee
• Harvey Pressman, Director, Central Coast Children’s Foundation USSAAC, Co-Chair Disaster Relief Committee