BSpPath, CPSP. Claire Stanley has worked for over 18 years as a speech pathologist after graduating from La Trobe University in 1999. Since then, she has dedicated her career to evaluating and managing swallowing and communication disorders in the acute medical and outpatients setting, predominantly in the fields of neurological, respiratory and critical care. She has worked as a speech pathologist internationally, spending 2 years travelling and working in the UK for the National Health Service. Claire is well respected in her field of dysphagia, including being one of the first clinicians in Australia to be credentialed to provide independent instrumental swallowing evaluation via endoscopy (FEES) and has provided training to other speech pathologists in this area. Claire has worked as a clinical educator for speech pathology students, and other allied health, both within the university and medical setting. She has developed clinical competency training programs in the area of instrumental swallowing evaluations (FEES and videofluoroscopy), and tracheostomy care. Claire has authored and presented papers at the Speech Pathology Australia National conference and International Laryngology Conference in the area of dysphagia, and co-authored several poster presentations for tracheostomy management.
Claire holds a senior speech pathology position at Monash Health, and works alongside Otolaryngologists at the Swallowing Disorders and Laryngology Clinics. The multidisciplinary team work together to diagnose and treat complex swallowing conditions, voice and upper airway disorders. Claire is a certified practicing member of Speech Pathology Australia, a member of National Foundation of Swallowing Disorders, the Australian Voice Association and sits on the board as a Victorian Representative for the Laryngology Society of Australasia. Claire started working with our associated speech pathology practice Voice Medicine Australia in 2014 and does some consulting for our Melbourne Voice Analysis Centre. We are fortunate to have Claire come aboard on a more regular basis to bring her expertise to the Melbourne Swallow Analysis Centre.
Claire’s research areas of interest include; swallowing outcomes for patients with unilateral vocal cord paralysis, expiratory muscle strength training for swallowing improvement and surgical dysphagia options. She is currently being trained in High Resolution Pharyngeal Manometry where she will soon travel to The University of Madison, Wisconsin and Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia to learn from the world leaders in this new diagnostic swallowing instrumentation.