Speech and Language Therapy Community

Community Speech and Language

The Community Speech and Language team provides assessment, therapy and advice to adults with speech, language, communication and swallowing difficulties.

These can occur as a result of a wide range of health conditions including, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, dementia and motor neurone disease.

The service is provided from a number of clinics in the Guildford and Waverley area. It can also be arranged for a therapist to see you at home or in your nursing/ residential home.

How can I tell you what I think of the Speech and Language Therapy service?

We very much value your feedback and all our therapists will ask you to fill in The Friends and Family Survey which is a short questionnaire.

This helps us to learn from your feedback and make service improvements. You will see on our notice boards what changes we have made as a result of your feedback.

Service details

Following a referral into the service a therapist will review your referral and prioritise your clinical need based on our medical criteria.

You will receive a letter acknowledging receipt of your referral. This will inform you that you are on the waiting list for an appointment.

You will then receive another letter or telephone call offering you an appointment when we have one available for you.

For all initial appointments, the therapist will ask some general health questions and find out the background to your difficulties and how it is impacting your day to day life.

For swallowing assessments you may be asked to eat and drink something in the session e.g. water, cake, banana.

For clinic appointments, you might be asked to bring something with you for this.

For communication difficulties, we will assess and diagnose what the problem is, and provide advice and therapy to maximise your communication abilities.

In some cases, this includes trying out alternative communication methods such as writing, drawing and the use of computers.