The Med Center recently hired an individual for a somewhat new to the area specialty and that specialty will be available right here in Albany.
Chelsea Brown Strehl, MSCCC-SLP, was born and raised in Albany and, after years of school, she has finally made it back to her hometown.
Strehl is the daughter of Joey Brown and Dr. Tammy Brown.
Strehl’s main focus is treating patients who are having trouble with swallowing, especially after a stroke or other illness like cancer, where the patient has limited control of body movements.
“We are starting to see adult and pediatric patients as well,” Strehl said. “My favorite thing to treat is swallowing, so I do a lot of swallow therapy. We do cognitive therapy and language therapy and that’s for people who have had strokes or people with neurological disorders like Parkinson Disease.”
People who have had head and neck cancer, as well as people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), are also prime candidates to see Strehl at the Med Center At Albany.
“The same muscles that we use for speech, we also use for swallowing,” Strehl said. “You never think you are going to have trouble swallowing until you do.
For example, people who have had head and neck cancer, throat cancer or voice box cancer, and  have had surgery or radiation treatments, that weakens those muscles and causes them to get stiff. That’s something we can rehabilitate.”
Strehl said on the pediatric side, she provides mostly speech and language therapy.
“If a patient has articulation disorders, like saying their R’s wrong, then we treat all of those things,” Strehl said.
Strehl has been working at The Med Center At Albany since June of 2023.
“A lot of people don’t know we are here. Most people have never had speech therapy at the hospital here,” Strehl said.
Strehl graduated from Clinton County High School in 2010, and then moved on to college, where she studied at the University of Kentucky.
“It’s always been a goal of mine to get back to Clinton County, but I didn’t ever know when that would happen,” Strehl said. “I tried to get as much experience as I could in school because I knew I was coming to a rural area and I would have to be able to treat adults and pediatrics which is kind of the whole realm of speech therapy. My last year I was in Lexington I was working with pediatrics and that was the last thing I felt like I needed more experience in. At that point I started looking and reaching out to people to see if there was any need for speech therapy.”
Strehl said she knew then there wasn’t a program at the hospital that covered her specialty, but after reaching out to Dr. Tracy Cross, Strehl said the ball got rolling.
“He said he thought there would be a need for speech therapy,” Strehl said. “I’ve always hoped to be able to move back here. My husband was open to moving here and I didn’t know if he would because he’s not from here, but he loves it here. Once he said he was open to moving here, everything else just kind of fell into place.”
One of the reasons for moving back to Clinton County was because Strehl knew people were in need of programs that aren’t offered in Clinton County.
“After growing up here and with mom being a doctor, I saw the need people in the area have in the medical profession,” Strehl said. “It’s always been on my heart to be able to come back  and provide something for the community and something that they didn’t have and something they needed. Home is home and I was ready to come back.”
In order to become a patient for speech therapy, Strehl said anyone can be referred from their family doctor.

Chelsea Brown Strehl, MSCC-SLP, worked with Cayleb Hamner on Thursday of last week during his swallow therapy session. Strehl is seeing patients at The Med Center Albany.