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The East Tennessee State University Center for Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology at the Nave Center underwent extensive renovations this year, expanding services offered at the interdisciplinary, interprofessional clinic located in Elizabethton.
This facility has served as an academic space for ETSU since 1976 and has transformed over the years into an interdisciplinary clinic with multiple areas of practice that serves community health care needs and educates ETSU students who are pursuing a variety of careers in the rehabilitative and diagnostic health sciences.
During the summer, former classrooms and lab spaces were transformed into additional SLP examination and observation suites so that ETSU’s SLP clinics could move from ETSU’s main campus to the Nave Center.
The ETSU College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences (CCRHS) celebrated the completion of the work and the grand reopening of the facility this fall.
“This renovation allows us to transition our SLP services to the Nave Center, where the space is larger, the parking is better, and the location is easily accessible to surrounding communities,” said Dr. Bess Sirmon-Taylor, chair of ETSU’s Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology.
The audiology services offered at the Nave Center include comprehensive hearing evaluations for all ages (newborns to geriatric patients); electrophysiologic testing, such as Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR); central auditory processing evaluations for school-aged children; hearing aid fittings and repairs; cochlear implant candidacy and mapping; hearing conservation and prevention; tinnitus assessment and management; and audiologic rehabilitation for all ages.
The center also offers comprehensive SLP services for pediatric and adult SLP diagnostic evaluation and therapeutic intervention services for individuals with communication and swallowing issues.
Other specialty programs at the Nave Center include the Positive Eating Program, designed for children with behavioral and sensory-based feeding challenges; the Social Communication Skills program, offering evaluation and treatment for children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder; Auditory-Verbal Therapy (AVT) intervention for children who are deaf or hard of hearing; and aural rehabilitation services.
“Our vision is to increase the interprofessional presence here at the Nave Center,” Sirmon-Taylor said. “We have space for additional ETSU Health clinics and are excited for the possibilities to expand the services at the Nave.”
“The Nave Center is truly a community-based clinical education site with a long history and a bright future in our region,” said Dr. Don Samples, CCRHS dean.