The Swallowing Centre: rationale for a multidisciplinary management

The need for professional management of dysphagic patients is growing. The scenario of patient care settings spans from the acute ward to chronic care facilities or home, requiring a health care network able to integrate hospital and community resources and optimise human and instrumental resources. This is also valid for Swallowing Centres, where admission, management, treatment and follow-up of discharged patients are a priority. The complexity of symptoms and the specificity of the underlying disease require a multidisciplinary approach to the patient. The coordinator of the Swallowing Centre is a phoniatrician working together with a logopedist. Patient management and personalized therapeutic options are discussed collegially. The logopedist, coordinating the activity of other therapists in the Centre, is responsible for patient treatment. In addition, the logopedist is responsible for counselling patients, nurses and informal caregivers.