The Medical Specialty for Communication and Swallowing Disorders
World Swallowing Day
Inspired by the annual World Voice Day, and since 2011, the UEP member Ass. Prof. Mohamed Farahat (MD, PhD) from the Research Chair of Voice, Swallowing, and Communication Disorders (RCVASD), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and his colleagues suggested December 12th to celebrate World Swallowing Day (WSD).
The purpose is a public awareness campaign to emphasize normal swallowing, different swallowing disorders, and causes, early detection, prevention, and management of these disorders. The RCVASD celebrated this day already in 2011.
Here you can find the WSD homepage of the RCVASD (https://c.ksu.edu.sa) by Ass. Prof. Mohamed Farahat .
Therefore, UEP kindly asked Ass. Prof. Mohamed Farahat to be the International Coordinator of the WSD. He accepted to overtake this task and made the following proposals:
Awareness campaigns in hospitals, public malls, …
Prepare an awareness video (in different languages) about normal swallowing process, swallowing disorders, and how to prevent them.
Contact the media (TV, Radio, Social networks) to announce for the celebration
Ask for volunteers to share in the campaign, including students
Print educational brochures about swallowing disorders and how to prevent them.
We want to think about a slogan to attract the people
Prepare a lecture to be presented in hospitals (for health care providers), and another one in public places (for the lay people) about swallowing process and disorders
Each centre to prepare its own census about swallowing cases that it receives annually and the percentage of these cases from the all communication disorders cases
Upload all of this information to the UEP website under the page (World Swallowing Day)
