Celebration for
Bay man who
supported many
without a voice
A special birthday celebration was held at
Tauranga Hospital recently marking the 90th
birthday of local man Brian Albrecht and
honouring his many years as a volunteer
supporting people who’ve lost their voice.
More than 25 years ago Brian had his voice box removed
(Laryngectomy) due to throat cancer. Back in the day he was a
smoker, a time when the health consequences of smoking were
not widely known. Since then he’s dedicated his life to educating
people young and old on what they can do to stay healthy.
He’s gone into classroom and shown school children how his
artificial larynx works while talking to them about the harmful
realities of smoking.
Brian’s also supported many people in the Bay of Plenty through
the support group “Lost Cord” for those who have also had their
voice boxes removed or to help coach those who are about to
lose their voice box. He shows them how to use a speaking
valve or artificial larynx.
“Brian’s featured in training videos, posters and the like, that
we use to support people both before and after having their
voice boxed removed. These materials are also used to educate
the public that talking in lots of different ways is still great
communication.
Fiona and Brian celebrating his birthday and many years as a volunteer.
“It’s such a major life changing event and the work Brian has done
really has made a difference. Brian we salute you.” says BOPDHB
Speech and Language Therapy Team Leader Fiona Hewerdine.
The Lost Cord support group meets in Tauranga four times a year.
For more details contact Fiona Hewerdine on 075798788.
In your Library
By Carol Charters, Librarian.
If you like UpToDate, try this...........
From now until 19 May, the library is trialling BMJ Best Practice.
You can find the link to the BMJ Best Practice trial on the library
page on OnePlace, look under the News and Views section on
the lefthand side. We welcome feedback for the trial and there is a
brief four question survey for you to respond to.
Best Practice is a UK based resource of information summaries
for direct patient care. The layout is clear and easy to follow. You
can quickly search for conditions in the main search screen or
browse under specialties. Each condition has a mark up similar to
UpToDate, i.e. overview, diagnosis, management and resources.
The latter contains guidelines, images, videos, patient information
and evidence scores. You can click on any aspect of a patient’s
condition e.g. treatment algorithm or view the entire contents as a
PDF.
Other resources available in Best Practice are calculators for
assessing clinical risk, drug information, patient information
leaflets, procedural videos and a special evidence tab which
features a number of training resources for evidence-based
practice. Check out EBM tools which gives you critical appraisal
checklists, statistical calculators and a glossary of terms. The
‘evidence’ tab is also where Cochrane Clinical Answers is located.
Clinical Answers summarises essential information from Cochrane
reviews to give a coherent , clinical bottom line. A useful tool for
busy clinicians.
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