Georgia Southern to offer free Parkinson's voice therapy with new grant

STATESBORO, Ga. (WTGS) — Georgia Southern’s RiteCare Center received a $280,000 grant to provide speech therapy to people diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

Samantha Elandary, the founder and director of the Parkinson’s Voice Project, said that people with Parkinson’s are very likely to experience voice loss.

She said her mission is to help them speak up through her program SpeakOut.

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It just doesn't have to happen," Elandary said. "We know how to treat the speech and swallowing issues related to Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s is one of the few neurological disorders that responds extremely well to therapy.

Elandary said she’s seen that with ongoing therapy, patients can maintain and regain their vocal and swallowing abilities.

However, she said she recognizes that therapies can only help those who can access them.

The new grant allows 16 schools, including Georgia Southern, to offer the therapies free of charge at their SpeakOut centers and online.

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They get free services from our lovely student clinicians, and we don’t go through insurance," Dr. Tory Candea, the clinic coordinator at GSU RiteCare Center, said. "There’s no charge at all.

The treatment is available to all people with Parkinson’s living in Georgia, which is why Candea said the telehealth aspect is so important.

They don’t have to get in the car and drive," Candea said. "They don’t have to arrange transportation.

Instead, Candea said the patients can do it from the comfort of their own homes, and the clinicians experience that same sense of pride when they see the results.