These Boards Allow COVID-19 Patients With Speech Difficulty To Talk

Some coronavirus disease or COVID-19 patients need to be hooked up to respirators that help them breathe. Others experience shortness of breath and/or weakness as their symptoms. These machines and symptoms can make it impossible for the patients to speak, making it difficult for them to communicate their needs to the health workers taking care of them.

To help address this, the Philippine Association of Speech Pathologists (PASP), in partnership with Project Shield PH and Cityway Printing, has created communication boards to be used by healthcare workers to communicate with COVID-19 patients.

The boards come in English, Filipino, Cebuano, and Ilocano. Each set contains multiple boards, including ones on Yes-No questions, pain scale, personal needs, medical needs, and medical decision making.

The PASP says the communication boards are recommended for single-patient use and must be properly disposed of once the patient no longer needs it.

“The purpose of [the communication boards] is to provide an alternative means of communication for patients who are incapable of talking at the moment because of COVID-19 so either they are intubated or their lungs cannot provide appropriate support for speech,” said speech and language pathologist Dav Quilantang, ABS-CBN News reports.

Quilantang added, “We want them to be able to participate in making medical decisions if our health workers are aware of them it would be easy to give the most appropriate and best possible care for our patients.”

The PASP also provides whiteboards and markers that patients can use to write messages for their relatives and the health workers taking care of them.

The communication boards are available for free and can be downloadable here where you will also find instructions assembling the boards. The PASP encourages the public to print the boards, assemble them, and help distribute them to hospitals that may need them. You may also donate to help fund the distribution of these boards by clicking here.