Logbook Week 6 Task

CASE HISTORY TAKING

Background:
Speech pathology prompt:
- You are a new graduate Speech Pathologist working at a private Melbourne Speech
Pathology clinic.
- You are meeting with your client, Linda King who is the local member for parliament.
- Linda is having concerns as she has been finding herself short of breath. She also has
noticed the quality of her voice has recently become more aspirated and breathier.
- She fears her issues will greatly affect her public speaking and speech giving.
- This is your initial face to face meeting with Linda, but you have spoken and booked
the appointment over the phone.

You are required to:

1. Open the session
2. Collect a case history from Linda
3. Close the session

Client prompt:
- You (Linda) are meeting with a speech pathologist at a private Melbourne Speech
Pathology clinic.
- You want to discuss you concerns regarding the changing quality of your voice as
well as the fact that you are finding your speaking more laborious each day.
- You have been putting the appointment off for some time as you couldn’t find time in
your busy schedule, yet it has gotten to a point where it is now affecting your work.

Suggested responses to SLP’s questions:

Introduction to session

SLP: Good morning, Linda it’s so lovely to finally meet you face to face.

Linda: Likewise, thank you for making the time.

SLP: You are most welcome! I’m just glad to help you out. Now I just wanted to clarify what
we spoke about earlier. When we were spoke on the phone the other day you were telling me
that you were concerned about the changes you were hearing in your voice. Is this correct?

Linda: Yes, that’s right. I’ve also been finding it quite difficult and taking to speak for long
periods of time. I find myself getting fatigued.

SLP: That must be difficult especially considering that as a local member you must be talking
at events and making speeches all the time.

Linda: Exactly! To be honest I’ve been nervous about setting the appointment because I
didn’t know what we would do I’ve never been to a Speech Pathologist before. A member of
my staff actually recommended you to me.
SLP: There nothing to be nervous about Linda. I don’t bite. Hahah. Today I just wanted to
ask you a couple of questions and learn a bit more about you, your life and the issues you are
feeling in order to start building a plan of action for progression. My aim through my sessions
is to give you to tools and skills to be able to keep working and improving well after we
finish sessions. How does that sound to you? Do you have any questions?

Linda: That sounds great! No no, ask away.

Gathering Information
- Biomedical
- Person’s perspective
- Background/ contextual information

SLP: Perfect Linda. Now I want to start with you telling me in your own words about your
concerns? When did they start?

Linda: I guess I’ve been feeling this way for almost over a year now. It took me a while to
realise that what I was feeling wasn’t normal.

SLP: I’m so sorry to hear that. It must’ve been quite confronting for you. Your voice and
message are something I would imagine you strongly rely on in your field. Do you or did you
find the quality of your speech worsen at any particular time or during any specific event?

Linda: If I think about it, it really exasperated when I was campaigning for my second term in
the office. Around this time, I was making multiple long speeches a day, working longer
hours and generally feeling quite stressed and anxious.

SLP: And would you find that you would feel, the labour, as you mentioned the weight of it
all hit you towards the end of the day, the beginning or all throughout.

Linda: Initially I only noticed it at the end of the day. But I think this is probably because I
was so busy, I didn’t even have the time to really acknowledge it. Now, that I have been re-
elected and am back behind the desk working I notice it’s an all-day occurrence.

SLP: Congratulations of re-election. That’s very exciting and I’m sure it is nice to settle after
the stress of the campaign. Now Linda, would you feel comfortable in letting me know if
anyone else in your family has ever experienced anything similar?

Linda: Not that I’m aware of. Sorry.

SLP: No no, don’t be sorry. It’s important to understand whether or not anything familial
could be potentially contributing to your feelings. On a similar vein, do you yourself have
any medical conditions that you feel are important for me to know about? Or do you take any
medication on a regular basis?

Linda: I used to experience quite bad panic attacks. I took medication for them. But I haven’t
had one for years and went off my medication some time ago. In saying all this, this issue is
quite overwhelming and honestly causes me a lot of discomfort.
SLP: I’m so sorry that you are feeling this way and I hope together we can make you feel a
lot better. Is it right for me to gather from what you are saying that this is causing you severe
distress and even possible affecting your mental health?

Linda: Yes, that’s right. It’s hard. I just feel embarrassed, like talking should be easy for me
I’ve always made it through my campaigns and speeches fine. I just don’t know why I feel
this way.

SLP: Speaking shouldn’t cause you embarrassment or distress Linda. Thank you for
answering my questions the information you gave me was super helpful. I would like to now
go through a couple of exercises with you as well a brief physical examination to gather so
more info to move forward. Is this okay with you?

Linda: Yes that’s fine

---------------------BODY CONTENT ---------------------

then
---------------------EXPLANATION PLANNING---------------------

Closing the session

SLP: Linda thank you so much for your cooperation in today’s sessions I hope you didn’t
find the exercises to tedious. I’ve gathered some really useful information which I want to put
into an action plan for you to implement both at home and when we see each other again next
week.

Linda: Thank you so much. The tasks were great fun not tedious at all! I look forward to next
week.

SLP: I’m so glad to hear that. Next week session’s will probably be a little bit shorter than the
one today as we will jump straight into some exercises. Maybe around 30 mins. I want to
start by seeing how you have progressed with that exercise I’ve given you to practice once a
day at home and then after we will continue with the next steps. I’ll even write it down for
you if you would like?

Linda: That would be super helpful just as a reminder!

SLP: No worries at all! … Here you are. Was there anything else I could clarify for you now?

Linda: No not at the moment. You were great.

SLP: That excellent to hear. Look if you do find you think of any questions whilst you at
home do not hesitate to call the office up and leave a message for me. I will ring you back
personally to discuss your queries. Thank you again for today

Linda: No thank you!

SLP: Have a lovely day.

Linda: You too! See you next week.