April is Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Month, and Samm Burlingame is working to help patients keep, maintain, and regain their voices.

“Parkinson’s Disease is complex. It’s a progressive neurological disorder,” Burlingame said. “It affects around 1 million Americans every year.”

Burlingame is a clinical instructor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at UMD and helps run the Robert F. Pierce Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic on campus.

Graduate students work with Parkinson’s patients for free in person or via teletherapy. It’s funded by a Parkinson Voice Project grant.

“We’re not only training our graduate students to work with people with Parkinson’s disease, but then they can immediately apply that to these clients at our clinic,” Burlingame said.

Clients have reported positive impacts such as being able to talk on the phone again, being able to play and talk to grandkids, going out to eat and having their significant other be able to hear them in a noisy restaurant.

There is more information about how to access the clinic’s services on UMD’s website.