In the Nueva Voz group, patients with head, neck and skin cancer recover their speech and the joy of living / @Tu_IMSS >>>

#IMSS.- Patients with cancer of the neck, throat or oral cavity who have undergone surgery at the Oncology Hospital of the Siglo XXI National Medical Center (CMN) of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), are treated at the Phoniatrics service for speech rehabilitation and esophageal or erigmophonic voice emission, as well as for the use of electrolarynx or phonatory prosthesis.

These patients are invited to join the Nueva Voz mutual aid group, where they are comprehensively attended by specialists in Phonoaudiology, Psychiatry and the Social Welfare area to achieve a comprehensive rehabilitation.

Every Thursday more than 20 patients meet in the Phoniatrics office of this medical complex to read aloud, sing and dance, have sessions with Tanatology personnel and once a month with the psychiatrist, Dr. Alfredo Angel Monjardin Perez, while specialists from the medical area follow up the progress of each person and interact in these activities.

Speech therapist Aylya Antúnez Vázquez, in charge of the Phoniatrics Service of the IMSS Oncology High Specialty Medical Unit (UMAE), reported that the group was created on November 30, 1978 with the support of medical personnel, Social Work, Nursing and the beneficiaries themselves; “it is a mutual aid group of patients for patients” and was born under the name of Club de la Nueva Voz (New Voice Club).

She pointed out that in 2019 she arrived at the Phoniatrics Service and was in charge of rehabilitating rightful claimants who presented sequelae from the resection of head and neck tumors, particularly those who lost their voice or resulted with speech alterations.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, alternatives were sought to continue with this work, since the office was closed for a year and both she and the patients were sent home; they created a WhatsApp group and continued their weekly sessions by videoconference, “one of the tools I used to follow the rehabilitation was reading aloud, with whatever books, magazines or a manual they had at hand and thus evaluate their progress”.

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