Community Hospital has hired a Director of Speech Therapy to expand speech services at the hospital and in the region. Adam J. Wolford, MS CCC-SLP, will join Kimberly Van Pelt, MS Ed CCC-SLP, in the Community Hospital speech therapy department.

Wolford graduated in May 2008 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a Master’s Degree in Speech-Language Pathology. He has been working in the inpatient rehabilitation/acute care services at BryanLGH Medical Center West since his graduation. He grew up in McCook graduating from McCook High School in 2002.

Adam chose speech as a career because “I just like to be face-to-face with people—making a difference in their lives every day. I want to help them get back to living as independently as possible,” he added.

He is excited to be moving back to his home town and have the opportunity to work at the Community Hospital Rehabilitation Center. “I would like the people of McCook to feel confident that they have adequate and professional rehab services right here in Southwest Nebraska without having to travel across the state.”

Adam’s wife, Sarah, grew up in Omaha. She studied merchandising and marketing in college.

Community Hospital’s speech therapy department provides services for:

• Swallowing disorders/swallowing therapy (related to stroke/Parkinson’s Disease)
• Language/articulation/vocabulary problems
• Cognitive linguistic skills (post traumatic brain injury/dementia)
• Post strokes (aphasia, apraxia)
• Learning and developmental disabilities for all ages
• Alternative and augmentative communication devices

The department works with patients of all ages from newborns to the elderly. This could include newborns who have swallowing disorders, or pediatrics with an adversity to textures during feeding. They can also work with language delay/disorders, cognitive skills and auditory processing skills in preschoolers through school aged children, as well as older adults who have been affected by strokes, traumatic brain injuries or those having swallowing difficulties.