It's time to take social connections online, not to let go

Hi there.

I am sure you are familiar with the COVID-19 and all the precautions happening all around us right know. It may feel scary as everything is happening so fast. However, it is amazing to see people around the world coming together, determined to beat this thing.

As for for many things, also for speech therapy sessions, this means staying put at home and going online. Namely switching from face-to-face speech session to telepractice, most often conducted via videoconferencing. For many patients online video calls are a familiar platform. For some, this can be a new thing all together. For us SLPs, as familiar and safe communication partners to our patients, this can be an excellent opportunity to open up new and necessary communication channels.

While isolated, many patients are forced to learn new skills and find new ways to connect with their loved ones. Many necessary appointments are also moving online like visits with doctors and nurses. At a time like this, I can not think of a better goal for speech therapy than picking up those new skills and experiences!

If you mostly do your speech sessions face-to-face, taking the leap for telepractise can feel daunting. There are a lot of things to consider to make things safe and secure and making sure you follow the necessary guidelines. These vary from country to country and between states so make sure to check what these requirements mean for you and your practice. With some patients and caregivers it will take some convincing to give telepractice a try (when everything is changing around you, putting speech therapy “on hold until things settle down” can feel like a good option), others will jump at the opportunity. However, if you and your patients jump through the hoops of getting everything ready for telepractice now, it is much easier to keep going if things drag out than to start building up again after some time has passed. Unfortunately we have no way of knowing how long this situation will be ongoing.

When you have your knots and bolts sorted out, agreements signed and patients ready to go, you need to figure out materials and ideas for conducting a session. You have spent a lot of time getting things this far and it sure takes time to get traditional materials transformed into digital form too. And you have that session coming up today, not next week! But fear not, I have something to help you get started.

Lovely set up by Kyllösen kommunikaatio.

Yes, of course I am talking about Sanapsis! Tons of ready to go materials and ideas to implement in your sessions. If you have used Sanapsis before in your face-to-face sessions with the patient, even better! Now there is something they know and are familiar with right there on their computer screen, in a new and different situation. If you are using your iPad for telepractice, share your screen, launch Sanapsis and fire away! If you prefer using your computer (I do!) connect your iPad to your computer, mirror your iPad to your computer (I like to use QuickTime Player, learn how here or here) and share your computer screen (check out the lovely set up from Kyllösen kommunikaatio. Thanks for the pic, Paula!). Easy as pie!

In a time like this, when social isolation is more or less mandatory, there is true power in making and maintaining connections with the people around us. Being there to go through the jitters together with our patients can make a huge difference. We should all embrace the opportunity of being there for our patients with communication difficulties as a low stress online connection. After all, we can help them to be able to connect with others with confidence after practicing these skills with you, their trusted communication professional.

To help you to get over this hurdle, we are offering Sanapsis (English) for free for the rest of March. If you are not familiar with Sanapsis yet, you can Sanapsis Lite for a sneak peak of what we have to offer in all three languages, English, Finnish and Swedish. We hope to be able to enrich your speech therapy sessions with adult patients by providing materials to be used together with your patient, in person or online. Never lose that connection!

Stay healthy. Help keep others healthy. We can do this.