Nathan shares his story of his journey with the Communication Aid Service East of England (CASEE) team here at CUH.
People who can’t speak, or who can’t speak clearly enough to make themselves understood, need other ways to support their communication to enable them to express their thoughts, feelings, needs and ideas and to transmit information, connect socially and ask questions.
This is where the CASEE team comes in and provides augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) support directly to people who meet the criteria and/or advice and training to local teams working with people who need AAC
Helen Murphy, CASEE Service Lead.
Nathan, 20 years old, aspires to be a computer game designer. He is attending City College from this year and will focus on Maths, English, science and IT.
He was referred to the CASEE team to help him explore options for voice output communication aids and to access methods to help him communicate easier.
I was using an I-gaze with difficulty until CASEE visited me in college. They tried many different options and before the end of their visit they established what I needed
Nathan - patient at CUH
Nathan was using a paper-based alphabet board to spell out words and typing using the notebook app on an iPad which was slow, frustrating and took a great deal of effort.
With some training from CASEE Centre, I quickly learnt to help myself on the tobii dynavox (device provided by CASEE). The support staff at the College also manage to understand the tobii dynavox system. The support staff gives me an assignment in Maths and English, which I answer on the tobii dynavox. When I used an Alphabet board to answer, and it took a long time to finish the assignment. It is now much quicker to finish my work on the tobii dynavox.
Nathan - patient at CUH
Some members of the CASEE team, including an occupational therapist, clinical technician and a clinical scientist, went to see Nathan.
After trialling several pieces of equipment, he was provided with a voice output communication aid which he uses a switch to access, this is faster and much less tiring for Nathan.
I created some short cuts on the communication aid to communicate with the people around me. The short cuts help me answer common questions quickly. Short cuts like, "how are you?”, “I'm good thanks” or “how old are you? I'm 20 years old
Nathan - patient at CUH
The CASEE Team are a multidisciplinary team made up of AHPs and other highly skilled professionals including; speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, an advisory teacher, a clinical scientist, clinical technician, rehabilitation engineer, equipment manager and administrator support.
They are a regional specialist assessment team working with people who have augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) needs, their local therapists, families and others.
To find out more please visit the CASEE web page.