Food, Identity & Chronic Dysphagia: A Patient Perspective That Will Change Your Practice with Yvonne McClaren

<p>In this episode of Dysphagia Research Bites, Chantelle sits down with writer, speaker, and educator Yvonne McClaren — a qualified chef, winemaker, and head and neck cancer survivor living with chronic dysphagia — to talk about the parts of dysphagia care that rarely make it into our clinical training. Yvonne shares her experience of going from eating her way through back alleys in Vietnam to not being able to swallow thickened water. I can honestly say that I learnt so much from Yvonne and realised that I need to do better to support clients living at home with dysphagia.</p><p> </p><p><strong>In this episode we cover:</strong></p><ul><li>Why Yvonne says the real fight began <em>after</em> treatment ended not during surgery or chemoradiotherapy</li><li>The concept of commensality and why the deeply human need to eat socially is one of the most overlooked dimensions of chronic dysphagia</li><li>What Yvonne was actually told at discharge, and the gap between that and what she needed to know</li><li>How caregiver involvement in meal preparation, however well-intentioned, can gradually sever a person&#39;s connection to food</li><li>Why &quot;just eat soft food&quot; is not a plan, and what asking &quot;what is your favourite food?&quot; could change about the way we approach management</li></ul><ul><li>What the mealtime environment at home actually looks like and why it matters more than we think</li><li>The psychosocial and emotional dimensions of chronic dysphagia that our clinical frameworks tend to leave behind</li></ul><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Resources mentioned in this episode:</strong></p><ul><li>Yvonne&#39;s book <em>GULP</em>: <a href="https://yvonnemcclaren.com/">yvonnemcclaren.com</a></li><li>The No Feeding Tubes Podcast </li><li>The Commensality Comeback Movement and the Back at the Table Framework — details via Yvonne&#39;s website</li></ul><p> </p><p>For clinical resources and evidence-based dysphagia education beyond the podcast, head to: <a href="http://www.dysphagiabites.com/">www.dysphagiabites.com</a></p>