Speech Therapy Cambodia currently supports teams of Cambodian dysphagia clinicians at three public hospitals in Phnom Penh: Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital (including the Sihanouk Geriatric Center), Calmette Hospital, and Kossamak Hospital.
Our Established Cambodian Dysphagia Clinicians
KOSSAMAK HOSPITAL
Dysphagia clinicians: Dr. Sothea, Mr. Boran, RN, Mr. Manh, RN, Mr. Vantha, RN (with Professor Chanty and SLP Paula)
Dr. Morokot, dysphagia clinician, (with Paula)
Dr. Sothea, dysphagia clinician, writing a FEES report
CALMETTE HOSPITAL
Ms. Srey Lak, PT, dysphagia clinician (with volunteer SLT Sarah Wallace)
Mr. Pak, PT, dysphagia clinician
Mr. Sokhom, Head of PT, advisor and admin support
KHMER SOVIET FRIENDSHIP HOSPITAL
Ms. Seak Ly, PT, and Mr. Lamy, PT, dysphagia clinicians, (with SLP Elizabeth)
Mr. Lamy and Ms. Seak Ly writing chart notes
Dr. Nara, Neurologist, advisor, and admin support
Ms. Englim, Head of PT at Sihanouk Geriatric Center, advisor, and admin support
In total, there are now 12 doctors, nurses, and physical therapists who have passed competencies to perform evaluation and treatment of swallowing disorders (dysphagia) across these three hospitals. Of these, seven Cambodian clinicians have been practicing for two years under licensed western speech pathologist supervision, and are regularly evaluated. Five clinicians operate in an advisory capacity and/or only do FEES evaluations.
Newest Cambodian Dysphagia Clinicians
An additional eight nurses (from KSFH and Calmette Hospital) have recently passed the first stages of their training (lectures and exams,) and are now starting their clinical practicums.
Welcome to our newest team members, and we wish you best of luck in this second stage of your training!!
EMPLOYEES AND SUPPORT STAFF
The work of our Cambodian dysphagia clinicians is supported by two experienced speech-language pathologists who provide ongoing training and clinical supervision, and by our great support staff.
Ms. Annie Johnson, Clinical Lead (Speech and Language Therapist)
Annie Johnson
Annie Johnson qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist in 2008 with an MSc (City, University of London). She also holds a BSc in Psychology (University of York). Annie worked for the NHS in London for nine years, before moving to Phnom Penh in October 2017. Since then, she has worked as a Speech and Language Therapist in Cambodia, gaining experience in both the NGO and private sectors. She has a clinical background spanning numerous clinical areas, including adult neuro-rehabilitation, head and neck cancer, acute hospital care and paediatric communication disorders.
Her specialties include acute traumatic brain injury, dysphagia and intensive care. Annie leads our Phnom Penh based team, whilst providing direct supervision and training to our Cambodian clinicians, as well as working with the team to develop SSTC’s programs.
Ms. Emeline Mottais, Clinical Educator and Advisor (Speech and Language Therapist)
Emeline Mottais
Emeline Mottais qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist in 2015, from Nantes University (France). Following this, Emeline worked in a hospital neuro-geriatric department in Paris for five years. Here, she managed elderly dysphagia, working with a wide range of conditions including neurodegenerative pathologies (e.g. Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s) and vascular pathologies (e.g.stroke).
During her last year in Paris, she was also responsible for the assessment and rehabilitation of dysphagia in post-ICU COVID 19 patients. In addition, Emeline has extensive experience providing clinical teaching and supervision to speech and language therapy students and healthcare staff. Since the beginning of 2021, Emeline has lived and worked in Phnom Penh. She joined the SSTC team in September in 2021 as a clinical educator and advisor. She also runs a private paediatric Speech-Language Therapy clinic
Mr Leng Veasna, General Manager
Leng Veasna
Mr Leng Veasna has worked for SSTC since 2017. Prior to joining SSTC, Veasna completed two degrees (English for Business Communication at the National Institute of Business; and International Relations, Pannasastra University of Cambodia). He was previously employed as a Civil Society Strengthening/Communication officer at Plan International. Veasna leads SSTC’s administration in Cambodia.
His work is varied and involves, for example, filing our annual reports with the Ministry of the Interior, submitting our expense reports and taxes or setting up work permits with the Ministry of Labor. He is also instrumental in providing support and expertise to our foreign clinicians, such as negotiating with key officials and leadership in our hospitals, collating data, organizing and participating in presentations and official meetings, and so much more. Veasna also contributes to the strategic planning of the organization, helping us to establish goals that are sustainable and culturally applicable to Cambodia.
Mrs Khan Dalin, Interpreter/Translator and Communications Officer
Mrs. Khan Dalin
Mrs. Khan Dalin joined the SSTC team in January 2020. Dalin is currently studying for a BSc degree in Community and Public Health (University of the People, USA). She has previously worked in Phnom Penh as a teaching assistant in a large international school, and as an English/Khmer interpreter. In her role at SSTC, she is responsible for translating written documents and facilitating spoken communication between foreign staff/volunteers and Cambodian clinicians, patients, and families.
She also interprets for SSTC at conferences and presentations. Furthermore, she has helped to develop our English-Khmer dysphagia glossary. The skills, vocabulary, and knowledge required to interpret/translate English-Khmer, for the Speech-Language Pathology field, are rare and highly specialized. With her mixture of language skills and education in Community and Public health, Dalin is perfectly placed to provide this critical service to our organization. Finally, Dalin supports the team with the creation and publishing of our social media communications.
VOLUNTEERS
None of this would be possible without another team—our wonderful volunteers. Over 30 speech therapists and educators have volunteered with Speech Therapy Cambodia since 2014 to provide training and supervision to STC-trained clinicians.
In addition, professors and clinical supervisors from universities and clinics in Australia, the UK and the US have volunteered their time to develop course materials in collaboration with STC to deliver lectures in the PT Bridging Program, the very first university program in Cambodia to address any aspect of speech language pathology (dysphagia).
A LITTLE HISTORY: OUR ORIGINAL TEAMS
Our program officially began in January 2014 at the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital, Department of Neurology in Phnom Penh. For two months, we trained two neurologists, a general medicine MD, and one physical therapist in the basics of swallowing evaluation and therapy. This was the first training program of its kind in Cambodia.
In 2015 we began a program at a second hospital, Calmette Hospital, where we conducted trainings for nine physical therapists in swallowing evaluation and therapy.
In early 2016, we began two additional programs for the adult population at the new Sihanouk Geriatric Center and at Kossamak Hospital, both in Phnom Penh. Four PTs were trained at Sihanouk Geriatric Center, and two RNs and two PTs were trained at Kossamak Hospital.
We are very grateful to our original teams, as they taught us so much about how to develop a dysphagia program. Because of their help, we were able to begin writing materials specific to a Cambodian context, and were able to see what worked and what didn’t work in terms of education of potential clinicians.
We learned about attrition (always train many more people than you need!) and our experiences led to our current model of lectures, exams, and practicums with competency requirements, developed in 2017 by SLPs Gerri Harris and Stacey Arthur.
If you look at the photos of each original team, you can spot one, two, or three clinicians from each team who are still very much involved in our program.
TEAMS: THE NEXT GENERATION
In late 2016, we began to teach a second generation of teams at both Sihanouk Geriatric Center (affiliated with Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital), and at Kossamak Hospital.
From this generation, two of the four PTs trained at KSFH, and four of the five doctors and nurses trained at Kossamak Hospital, are among our current dysphagia clinicians—a great retention rate!
Three of the very first group of dysphagia trainees at Calmette Hospital are now on our current team there.
At the end of 2017, SLPs Gerri Harris and Stacey Arthur initiated our current training model, described above. Gerri and Stacey were concerned that many trainees were missing classes (usually due to work) and therefore had holes in their education. It was time to step up requirements for our trainees so that quality dysphagia management could be provided. So, they organized an intensive training program with lectures and strict exams, and clinical competencies to be achieved.
For this effort, they developed a 300-page training manual (all translated into Khmer) and training videos, handouts for family education, and much more. To say that their tenure was transformative for our program is an understatement.
MS. PHIVAN NORNG
Phivan joined our STC team in 2015. She was our original translator, interpreter, administrative assistant, treasurer, and everything else. Phivan greatly helped us in our initial efforts, even accompanying our founder to villages to do exploratory work regarding Cambodian needs for speech-language therapy.
In 2016, Phivan single-handedly set up our registration as a Cambodian NGO (SSTC) with the Ministry of the Interior in Cambodia, a feat not easy to accomplish.
Phivan resigned from STC and SSTC at the end of 2017. We remain very grateful to her for her many contributions.
How you can help
Volunteer
We are looking for experienced SLPs who have worked in Southeast Asia or other developing/ majority nations, or who have traveled extensively in these countries. Come to Cambodia and teach with us!
IT and social media skills are also needed to help with our website, Twitter, and Facebook.
Promote us
Like us on Facebook; connect with us on Twitter and on other social media. Spread the word! Let your friends know about our work.
Connect us with organizations or people who might be able to further our mission, including major donors or foundations.
Donate
As a 501(c)(3) we rely on donations from people like you to support our mission in Cambodia. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation today please click the link, or visit our page on Razoo.com.