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From: Irene Bullard
Date: 10 Oct 2011
Time: 10:21:24 -0500
Remote Name: 76.214.57.74
This is a question I expected many people would have regarding my working with the dual speech difficulties. When asked to write this article my great fear was how to explain this to those reading my article. I decided to jump in anyhow. Judy Kuster is good at making one feel that one has a story worthy of being told. I began writing a reply to your inquiry yesterday but needed time to formulate a response. I am both proud of what I accomplishment but there is a degree of embarassment as to what people think about my less than perfect speech. Yes, my dual diagnosis and coping with both was a problem in working with my clients at times. I always told clients at the start of treatment that I stuttered, I did not mention the voice problem as I thought that would only complicate things. It was too complex to explain. Actually it was over 20 years that I dealt with both problems at the same time while I continued to work. During that time I did get therapy off and on and the things that helped me most were easy onset and continuous voicing, I used short phrases as my voice gave out with longer utterances. Slightly longer pauses were also helpful as it gave me extra time to reset my approach to saying words, etc. This was also helpful for many clients as a slower speech rate with pauses made their comprehension better. I had praise from clients and families who thought that I would understand better the difficulties they were going through, that I had a better understanding of how to cope with deficits. On the other hand, there were clients and their families who did not accept me and my speech deficits so well. There were times when I was speaking better and times when it was worse. Overall I was touted by many of the other staff members (RNs,PTs and OT's) in home care who saw me as good at helping our clients. I am sure there are others who did not feel the same. There were moments when I questioned, in my own head, why I ever put myself in this difficult position in the first place? But I felt I did do a good job. On the death of a former supervisor, his wife told me that he said I was the best at what I did and the hardest worker he ever supervised. I believe there was both good and bad in the whole situation but on the whole I think I functioned well. I am glad yu asked this question as I am sure there are many others who may have the same question and may not be comfortable asking it. It is a question worthy of being asked.