The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering is a specialist centre for
speech and language therapy for
stammering
Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the ...
in London, England. It officially opened in 1993 as a joint initiative between the charity Association for Research into Stammering in Childhood (now Action for Stammering Children) and the Camden & Islington Community Health Services NHS Trust.
It is now run by the
Whittington Health NHS Trust with support from Action for Stammering Children and the
Stuttering Foundation of America
The Stuttering Foundation of America provides free online resources, services and support to those who stutter and their families, as well as support for research into the causes of stuttering. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Stuttering Fo ...
.
It is located in Pine Street, central London.
The actor
Michael Palin
Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, television presenter, and public speaker. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Since 1980, he has made a number of travel documentaries.
Palin w ...
agreed for the centre to be named after him following his role in the film ''
A Fish Called Wanda
''A Fish Called Wanda'' is a 1988 heist comedy film directed by Charles Crichton and written by Crichton and John Cleese. It stars Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and Michael Palin. The film follows a gang of diamond thieves who double-c ...
'', in which he portrayed Ken, a character who stammered, as well as having mentioned in his diaries that his father stammered.
Palin's continued support and involvement has helped create a high profile for the centre.
[
Children, young people and adults who stammer, both from across the UK and from overseas,][ are seen by the specialist speech therapists at the centre, either face to face or using ]telehealth
Telehealth is the distribution of health-related services and information via electronic information and telecommunication technologies. It allows long-distance patient and clinician contact, care, advice, reminders, education, intervention, mon ...
. Assessments for children from the UK are charitably funded. Funding for therapy for UK residents may be sought from the NHS and private therapy is also available.
The Centre runs a comprehensive training programme for therapists and a research programme into stammering.[
]
References
{{reflist
External links
Michael Palin Centre for StammeringStuttergone One-on-one Speech Therapy
Stuttering
Stuttering associations