Caring for someone with dementia is difficult enough, and it doesn’t help that one of the most common complications isn’t on most people’s radars.

“The prevalence of dysphagia, when it’s difficult for the individual to swallow, is a really understudied piece of dementia,” says Samantha Shune, an associate professor in the University of Oregon College of Education. She directs the Communication Disorders and Sciences Program.

U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle met with University of Oregon College of Education leaders and faculty members Thursday to discuss programs that train students for licensed professions and to find ways to get more students into the workforce, with or without a college degree. Hoyle also toured the college’s HEDCO Clinic, where she met with undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees and providing counseling services to community members.

Day Hancock-Murphy, a graduate student in the Couples and Family Therapy Program at the College of Education, was awarded the prestigious American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Minority Fellowship for the upcoming year.

More than four years ago, Karrie Walters saw a need to make diagnostic services more accessible in Eugene. She decided to address the problem herself by launching a comprehensive diagnostic clinical service in 2019 to assess a range of learning, attention and developmental disorders.

The UO’s seventh Ducks Give event will take place May 12, across the UO campus and, virtually, around the world. Organizers plan to raise more than $1 million, a benchmark they’ve reached every year the event has taken place.

Research has shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an uptick in depression, anxiety, stress and other mental health conditions. In a recent poll conducted by USA Today and Suffolk University, the vast majority of respondents reported feeling like the country is experiencing a mental health crisis.

A new collaboration between the UO’s College of Education and Oregon Health & Science University will allow children in Eugene and Southern Oregon to receive hearing assistance at the UO instead of traveling to Portland.

As the pandemic shut people out of speech therapy options, a quick switch to teletherapy allowed a vital community clinic at the UO to stay open and kept the students who staff it on track for graduation.

Parents facing the dual challenges of dealing with a pandemic and raising a child with autism have a chance to hear from some of the UO’s nationally recognized special education experts during a virtual event this Wednesday, July 8.

The University of Oregon's HEDCO Clinic is offering a variety of services for children and families to the community during COVID-19.