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Speech-Language Therapy

Hours
Monday to Friday: 8am - 4.30pm
After-hours cover provided on the last day of four day holiday weekends for urgent referrals and follow-ups.

About Us
Speech-Language Therapists (SLTs) provide assessment, diagnosis and management of disorders that affect a baby's, child's or adult’s speech and/or language production, vocal production or swallowing ability.*

Communication difficulties include difficulty with expressing or understanding language, unclear speech, disfluency/stuttering, and voice changes.

Swallowing difficulties may be characterised by coughing or choking when eating, recent weight loss or failure to gain weight, complaints of discomfort when eating, recurrent chest infections, or a child’s failure to progress to more challenging foods.

Communication and/or swallowing problems in adults may be caused by:

  • Stroke
  • Traumatic brain injury
  • Neurological conditions e.g. SAH (subarachnoid haemorrhage), brain tumour
  • Head and neck cancer
  • Dementia
  • Progressive neurological diseases e.g. MND (Motor Neurone Disease), Parkinson’s, MS (Multiple Sclerosis)
  • Voice impairments (e.g. vocal nodules, vocal fold palsy)
  • Tracheostomy
  • COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)
  • Cardiac surgery

Communication and/or swallowing problems in babies and children may be caused by:

  • Genetic syndromes
  • Reflux
  • Failure to thrive
  • Developmental delay
  • Injury resulting from complications at birth
  • Behavioural concerns
  • Brain damage
     

We see patients in a number of settings including:

  • All inpatient wards at Wellington and Kenepuru Hospitals
  • Outpatient clinics at Wellington and Kenepuru Hospitals
  • Patients throughout the region who are unable to leave their home can be seen by the community SLT, including in rest homes and hospital level care

 

Referrals
Outpatients and paediatric community patients can be referred by faxing a referral letter to the Outpatient Booking Centre, (04) 385 5402. Please include any history pertaining to this referral and clear reasoning for the referral. We do also accept self referral, but prefer referral by a health professional.

Community patients (adults) should be referred by completing and faxing the CCC referral form to (04) 238 2022 or 0800 282 202.

* Exceptions

  • Children with speech and language delays should be referred to Group Special Education
  • Children with feeding or swallowing difficulties related to a recognised diagnosis should be referred to the Child Development Team [fax (04) 237 9273]

 

Contact Us

Speech-Language Therapy
Level 10, Grace Neill Block
Wellington Hospital
Private Bag 7902
Wellington 6242

Maps:
Wellington Outpatients 
Kenepuru Outpatients

Phone:

(04) 385 5999 x 82373 

Locations Information

Choose one of the locations above for address and contact information.