HCMC’s Integrated Listening System Underway

By Becky Hedges / HCMC Public Relations Director

Paris, Tenn. – With its “Sounds of Hope” program, the Henry County Medical Center’s Center for Wellness and Rehabilitation has helped the community achieve something special.

HCMC’s certified speech therapists traveled to Colorado to obtain certification in a new form of sound therapy. Suzanne Jackson, Tina Vine and Jan Hosford together have implemented the Integrated Listening System (ILs) at the Center for Wellness and Rehabilitation.

ILS will benefit an endless number of individuals including but not limited to those with autism, ADD/ADHD, auditory processing disorders, dyslexia, sensory processing disorders, speech/language delays, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, brain injury and stroke. This program will provide treatment for those individuals who encounter struggles with activities of daily living (ADLs) including communication, reading, writing, and spelling.

Integrated Listening Systems is a non-invasive auditory re-education program, which helps the listener achieve fast, efficient auditory processing skills. The unique listening programs “exercise” the visual, auditory and balance systems simultaneously, improving mental and physical capabilities as well as self-confidence. Clients as young as two and a half can benefit from ILS with no age limit for adults.

A typical program involves 23-30 sessions of one hour and 20 minutes each, with one or two three-week breaks in the middle. ILS has consistently shown success in improving attention difficulties, auditory processing difficulties, reading difficulties, learning difficulties, self esteem as well as alertness, focus and energy.
Over 90% of all who undertake the iLs program report significant improvement and/or remediation of their primary concern. For example, if a child has a reading problem, but the reading problem is due to an auditory processing problem, the ILS program will have resolved the auditory piece and he/she is likely reading better. In the case of inattention, the child will attend better.

These changes are often life-changing. Research indicates an average three month program yields a 50-75% improvement in auditory processing skills and a two-year gain in reading skills.

Joe Roberts, a 69 year-old resident of Gleason, suffered a stroke that left his speech extremely difficult to understand. He has been utilizing the iLs program for about 12 weeks and is at the end of his program.

“It has helped me a great deal,” Robert said. “My neighbors and family members have commented about how they can understand me better now.”

Roberts’ occupational therapist, Diane McClendon, who also works at the Wellness Center, has noted marked improvements in the functional use of his right hand since beginning ILS.

“He can use his hand in ways now that he couldn’t before beginning the program,” McClendon said.

“We have nine individuals benefiting from the program presently, “ Jackson said, “and we only have one therapy unit. Due to the length of an individual program, it would be more feasible to purchase two additional units so all three therapists could have their own unit, sending three individuals through a program at one time.”

Jackson received funding from Paris and Henry County Healthcare Foundation under the direction of Robin Hunter. The campaign is called “Sounds of Hope” and it will offset the overhead costs of providing sound-based therapies to individuals with learning and communication related difficulties.

“Insurance companies do not cover this process at the present time. We want help providing the service to individuals whose insurance will not cover it,” Jackson said.

Article and Credits Provided by:

Original Link at:
http://www.henrycountian.com/news.php?viewStory=1709

This article is available in PDF using Adobe Reader.