Kean offers support for disabled students

UNION - Kean University’s Institute for Adults Living with Communication Disabilities recently began offering expanded speech, language and rehabilitation support services to persons suffering from aphasia, dysarthria, voice disorders, Parkinson’s disease and head injury under a $130,000 grant from the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.
“The demand for speech therapy services for adults continues to increase each year and every 23 seconds someone in the United States sustains a traumatic brain injury,” The Center’s Director Dr. Mary Jo Santo Pietro said.
According to the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, New Jersey has over 23,000 stroke victims and approximately 7,500 traumatic brain injuries each year. There are 2.5 million stroke survivors in this country with various levels of disability.
“Patients and families have a difficult time finding services, especially long-term therapy, that are affordable or covered by insurance,” Santo Pietro said.
Patients and their caregivers will receive, at minimal cost, individual and group speech-language therapy, specialized training programs and counseling support groups.
“This grant enables Kean University to build upon its 40 years of providing heath care services to the community,” she said. “We will be able to serve significantly more patients, provide a broader range of services, create a research and service model for communication disorders in New Jersey and train our students, the next generation of health care providers.”
The Institute operates four days per week and offers individualized services for clients and families. Masters-level student clinicians under the supervision of licensed speech-language pathologists work with clients to achieve maximum recovery and to learn new ways to compensate for lost skills.
Kean University offers a masters program in speech-language pathology. Kean graduates work throughout New Jersey in diverse venues such as hospitals, schools, rehabilitation and clinical sites.