Presented by Laura Michael
Click here for a recording of the live webinar broadcast on January 27, 2015.
Description: Managing and maintaining nutritional and hydration needs for someone with dysphagia can be especially challenging. In this presentation, Laura Michael will discuss the importance of meeting one’s nutritional needs and how to make foods and beverages safe, palatable, and pleasing. Ms. Michael will discuss her first-hand experience of caring for her father when he developed dysphagia due to Lewy Bodies Dementia and how she was able to translate all her industry knowledge and cooking skills to help her mother and others care for her ailing father.
Laura Michael, BS
Bio: Laura Michael earned her B.S. degree in Nutrition from the Ohio State University and then trained with one of the authors of the American Dietetic Association’s National Dysphagia Diet. Laura spent more than ten years as a Regional Sales Manager in the healthcare/food industry. During that time she educated and trained hospital, nursing home and rehab facility staffs on how to make foods and beverages safe, palatable and pleasing for their patients with swallowing disorders. In 2011, Laura started her own company, Dysphagia Supplies Direct, to help people with dysphagia live their best lives. She trains professionals and family caregivers in how to manage the food and beverage modifications necessary using techniques and products to meet the needs of each unique client. Her company offers specialty food products, many of which are not readily available outside the acute-care setting, making it possible to receive care at home, in a group home or other care setting. Her specialty is caring for those with Alzheimer’s and other Dementias, ALS, Parkinson’s disease, Stroke and Head-Neck-Oral Cancers. Ms. Michael is a board member of our foundation, the NFOSD.