After Ronnie Hamilton of Helena, Alabama, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in summer of 2024, he did not communicate the same way he used to. “I would just go sit at the church and wouldn’t talk a lot,” Hamilton said. “Unless I just forced myself to talk, I was kind of ignored. I guess people don’t hear you.” Doing “everything with intent” is a phrase emphasized in the SPEAK OUT!® therapy program. Thanks to a grant from the Parkinson Voice Project, co-principal investigators Sarah Hoch and Edie R. Hapner, Ph.D., speech-language pathologists at the UAB Voice Center, are able to offer SPEAK OUT! therapy free of cost to eligible people with Parkinson’s disease. “I’m healthier now. I can talk better. I can think better. And I do everything with intent now,” Hamilton said. Read more: https://go.uab.edu/4j2NZFK (fb)

“Making the change from a Catholic health ministry to a [public] hospital was, in a lot of ways, a huge change. But our reasons for being here are still the same,” Spiritual Care Manager Rev. Drew Phillips says. “We continue to provide compassion and give people the dignity they deserve. And the spirit and heart that is in that work hasn’t changed.” Read the latest from UAB Magazine: https://go.uab.edu/3SBzspm (fb)