Meeting & Conference Report
By Valerie Morton Speech & Language Therapist, Belfast City Hospital Trust
Voice Clinic Forum 2006 - A Personal Perspective
Pride Park is known to football fans as the home ground of football championship team Derby County. But on Friday November 24, the stadium played host to a squad of 80 members of the BVA who had arrived there from all parts of the UK.
The reason for gathering was the 3rd Annual Voice Clinic Forum Day and what a valuable event it turned out to be. So much so, that my speech and language therapy colleague, Catherine McMullen and I did not complain about having to be up with the lark in time to catch the 7.30 am flight from Belfast International Airport!
Appropriately, given the venue, the theme for this year’s forum was “fixing the pitch”, age related voice lift and voice clinic audits. In addition there were updates on specialist training in laryngology and on threats to voice clinics – all very relevant topics to those of us in practice.
The whole event proved to be absorbing. For me, as someone who has been a voice therapist for 25 years and a member of a voice clinic team since 1990, there were many points for interest. The main themes that I came away with were the value of multidisciplinary working, the importance of evaluating our work, the need to make necessary changes and the requirement to be aware of reforms within the NHS in order to develop a proactive approach. Speech and language therapy intervention and surgical management of pitch problems with specific patients including transsexual clients were presented with good sound reference to individual case studies. Conservative and surgical options were also considered for the aging voice. Particularly striking was a video presentation by Sharat Mohan showing how abdominal fat can be used in vocal cord augmentation. All audits were pertinent and Philippa Ratcliffe showed very clearly how she approached two frequently reported problems – prioritisation of patients and waiting lists.
To sum up, there were lots of thought provoking presentations, stimulating discussion and it was a great opportunity to renew the acquaintance of regular BVA delegates and meet new members. Sincere thanks to the organisers for all their hard work. Roll on the 4th Voice Forum.