Speak Out April 2021

Association NEWS

Activity and involvement with Swallowing Awareness Day in 2021 was strong. While the date of Swallowing Awareness Day in 2021 was shared with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic in the United Kingdom meant that the international reach of the campaign was not as great as it has been in the past. Notwithstanding, and despite the lingering challenges of COVID-19, there was plenty of evidence that Dizzy, the Swallowing Awareness Day mascot, was out and about promoting the campaign and increasing awareness of dysphagia. Participation with the campaign’s social media was strong with a lot of engagement with the day’s hashtags #swallowaware2021 and #dysphagia. awareness day Wednesday 17 March 2021 Rita is a winner! Social media competition winner Rita Shamoun @ritamouny, is the winner of the Swallowing Awareness Day social media competition. Rita posted on Instagram about swallowing, urging her followers, to “consider those who have swallowing difficulties and/or experienced swallowing difficulties. Such a simple task we take for granted until we can no longer do so”. Rita included the hashtags #dysphagia and #swallowaware2021 on her post. The post also received a number of positive comments from her followers. Rita wins a $150 gift voucher. Congratulations to Rita. Enjoy the voucher and thanks for supporting Swallowing Awareness Day and helping us to raise awareness of swallowing difficulties.

After the popularity of the digital campaign kit with Speech Pathology Week in 2020, a similar kit was developed and made available for Swallowing Awareness Day. The digital kit, along with other promotional collateral, was downloadable from the Association’s website. In a first for the Association, animation was used in to increase awareness and engagement with the day’s social media campaign. Thank you to all those members and colleagues who worked to increase awareness of Swallowing Awareness Day and the important issues it endeavours to highlight.

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April 2021 | Speak Out