March 11, 2019 —<\/p>\n
Written by Marybeth Kotrodimos<\/p>\n
We are very proud to announce that our speech and hearing clinic, officially known as the University of Hawaii Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD), has been named recipient of the Oscar and Rosetta Fish Fund Grant, an award given to provide speech therapy services to disadvantaged children aged three to five.<\/p>\n
CSD has been awarded $20,000 a year for three years, for a total of $60,000 covering the grant period of January 2019 to December\u00a02021.<\/p>\n
According to Keith Yamase, Fiscal and Administrative Specialist at CSD, the effort that led to CSD being granted this award \u201cwas truly a team effort\u201d for CSD.<\/p>\n
With the humility which seems so characteristic of those in her department, Dr. Pauline Mashima acknowledges that though she was the one who \u201cconnected with the Hawaii Community Foundation* and prepared the proposal narrative, Keith Yamase, Dr. Lisa Taniguchi, and Dr. Kristi Noel provided invaluable support and contributions which resulted in our success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keith adds that they are \u201cespecially grateful\u201d to Dr. Larry Shapiro (UHP CEO), Chip Ellis (UHP Chief Financial Officer), and Rachel Zane (UHP Legal Affairs & Contracts Administrator) for \u201call the support they provided\u201d in this effort.<\/p>\n
According to Dr. Mashima, the Fish Fund Grant will allow CSD to provide therapy to children three to five years of age \u201cwho demonstrate speech-language delays or disorders.\u201d Their \u201cshort-term goals,\u201d she said, \u201cwill be to help them 1) understand the communication of peers and adults, and express their thoughts and feelings, and 2) improve their ability to participate in communicative and social interactions in their daily activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The long-term goal of this program, Dr. Mashima tells us, is “to promote positive learning and developmental outcomes\u201d including literacy skills. They anticipate that this approach will empower the parents of these young patients \u201cto serve as their child\u2019s primary speech-language \u2018teacher\u2019 through their active engagement and participation\u201d in this program. She explains that they will teach parents how “to implement home programs” which will “infuse facilitating communication techniques in their child\u2019s daily activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to working with patients who are already enrolled in treatment at CSD, Dr. Mashima said that they intend to \u201cextend their program by networking with colleagues in the community to enroll children who do not meet eligibility criteria of other agencies. This strategy,\u201d she said, \u201cwill enable us to support children who are under-served and underprivileged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides providing these direct services to children and parents, Dr. Mashima tells us that CSD \u201cwill work toward developing a center of excellence and a model program\u201d to not only serve children with communication disorders, but also \u201cto educate speech-language pathologists in the community to fill the need for specialists in early intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this, CSD hopes to honor the legacy of Mrs. Rosetta Ramsey Fish, a former speech pathologist who taught speech at UH at Manoa, and later, with the Hawaii Community Foundation, started this fund to assist families who have children who need speech therapy.\u00a0 She was known for caring much about children with speech disorders.<\/p>\n
Whenever, in speaking with someone from CSD, we mention the good work that they do for our community, it seems that the word \u201cteam\u201d comes figures prominently in their responses.\u00a0 Members of the CSD team are each quick to point to the efforts of other members of their department, quick to acknowledge each other as being instrumental in their achievements.<\/p>\n
And their achievements have been significant.\u00a0 For 45 years, CSD has been training speech-language pathologists, serving as the onsite teaching facility for our community. They have also hosted students from Japan and Taiwan for clinical training and cultural exchange.<\/p>\n
In addition, CSD faculty helped to develop and establish the first-ever accredited speech pathology program in China at Kunming Medical University (KMU). In 2016, CSD\u2019s Dr. Henry Lew and Barbara Ward traveled to China to help with KMU program development and a special autism training for physicians there. Dr. Lew himself has been specially awarded and recognized for his work with international education programs.<\/p>\n
CSD pride always seems to be tempered with humility and gratitude for the privilege of serving people as they do. \u201cIt\u2019s an honor and privilege to serve on the UH CSD faculty and as a UHSHC provider with JABSOM and UHP,\u201d says Dr. Mashima. \u201cWe function as a team, to support each other in achieving our collaborative goals for our department and faculty group\u00a0practice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n We are truly proud of CSD and grateful to them for the contribution they make not just to our community, but to others far beyond our Island. Congratulations CSD!<\/span><\/p>\n