Direct Answer: Home health speech therapy professionals deliver cognitive-communication and swallowing rehabilitation directly in patients’ homes. According to ASHA (2026), approximately 5% of SLPs work in home health—serving over 3 million medically complex adults annually (National Center for Health Statistics, 2026). Because home health clinicians use their vehicles as mobile offices, supply hubs, and lunchrooms, maintaining a organized, well-equipped kit is essential for high-quality care, safety, and infection control.
Home health speech therapy professionals have the opportunity to work in the most functional setting possible–their patients’ homes.
This leaves us with the unique task of bringing all our therapy materials around with us wherever we go.
What should home health SLPS buy to be well-equipped for their jobs? In addition to driving them, we home health clinicians use our cars as offices, storage rooms, lunchrooms, and even for the occasional nap!
Here are 20 items that home health SLPs should keep in their cars.
Home Health Speech Therapy Practice Overview
Home health speech therapy feels very similar to other settings.
You still work with people who’ve had strokes, TBIs, head and neck cancer, ALS, Parkinson’s Disease, tumor resections, and more.
You still work on dysphagia, aphasia, voice, dysarthria, memory, executive functioning, and so on.
And you still refer out when your patient needs it, to professionals like OT, PT, nursing, radiology, neurology, gastroenterology, and otolaryngology.
Where home health differs:
- You’ll likely see only 5-6 patients a day
- You’ll likely get paid more
- You can use items around their house in therapy
- You may have easier access to care partners
- You have to make calls to primary care providers to receive referrals, even for things like instrumental evaluations
- Among other differences.
|
Home Health Setting |
Outpatient / Acute Care Setting |
|
|---|---|---|
|
Daily Caseload |
Typically 5–6 patients per day |
8–14+ patients per day |
|
Therapy Environment |
Patient’s home & community |
Decontextualized office or inpatient room |
|
Functional Context |
High: use patient’s actual pills, kitchen, & home routines |
Simulated: use clinic worksheets or table-top props |
|
Care Partner Access |
Direct, real-time access to family & home caregivers |
Periodic or phone-based follow-up |
|
Supply Management |
Mobile kit managed directly by the clinician |
On-site central supply room |
Only about 5% of speech-language pathologists work in home health in the US (ASHA, 2026). However, those SLPs serve over 3 million people a year, and this number is growing (National Center for Health Statistics, 2026).
More Popular Articles:
20 Essential Items to Keep in Your Home Health Car
1. Therapy Bag
Hopkins Medical Products Mark V Shoulder Bag
Hopkins Medical Rolling Med Bag
Clinical Purpose: Your therapy bag will be your constant companion as you visit your patients. It will hold your PPE, blood pressure monitor, pulse oximeter, extra batteries, and other materials (some listed below!)
Key Feature: Luckily, your home health agency will likely provide this for you. Therapy bags are made of materials that are easier to wipe off and clean.
Equip Your Mobile Therapy Bag. Streamline your home health visits with grab-and-go clinical resources:
- Access 900+ pages of functional worksheets in The Adult Speech Therapy Starter Pack.
- Get step-by-step assessment and care-partner training guides in the Adult Speech Therapy Protocols Pack.
- Download printable motor speech drills and pacing sheets in our Etsy Shop.
2. Hand Sanitizer
Clinical Purpose: Comply with strict hand hygiene before and after entering a patient’s house.
Recommendations: You can stick with the stuff your office gives out for free. Or, purchase one with a pump for ease of use AND a cap to avoid spills.
3. Portable File Box
Clinical Purpose: You’ll have room in your therapy bag for some papers, like your evaluation forms and educational handouts that you tend to use over and over.
For everything else, use a portable file box.
Use it to store and organize multiple copies of screens (MoCA, SLUMS), workbooks, blank welcome packets, and other patient education handouts.
Recommendation:We use Sterilite’s Portable File Box. It’s designed to hold letter-sized hanging file folders, making it easy to organize your papers. There’s also a nifty top compartment where you can stash pens.
4. The Adult Speech Therapy Starter Pack
Clinical Purpose: We offer The Adult Speech Therapy Starter Pack. It includes hundreds of pages of printable patient handouts, worksheets, goal banks, all assessment templates for direct patient use.
Key Features: They pages are made to grab-and-go: you can feel confident handing out these evidence-based, functional handouts and worksheets to your patients.
You can keep copies in a portable file folder or open them on your devices during treatment.
5. Gum or Breath Mints
ALTOIDS Smalls Peppermint Breath Mints
Clinical Purpose: To hide your Flamin’ Hot Cheetos breath.
While interning at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, a patient survey revealed that the #1 patient complaint about their therapists was bad breath! Show a little love and pop a breath mint or two before each patient.
6. Copies of NOMNC Forms
Clinical Purpose: NOMNC stands for “Notice of Medicare Non-Coverage.” It’s a form that all patients sign and keep towards the very end of their time in home health.
Many times patients have a copy in their admission packet. And many patients have no idea where their admission packet is!
To make your life easier, keep several copies in your therapy bag.
7. Insulated Lunch Bag
An insulated lunch bag is a must for keeping food and drink fresh during those eight-hour (or more) days in the car.
8. Water Bottle
Preferably one with an easy-to-open lid just in case you get thirsty while driving.
Also, look for one that hold 32 ounces or more so you don’t run out during your work day.
Pro tip: bring two water bottles or refill your bottle using the “water” option on soda machines.
9. Whiteboard
Clinical Purpose: Whiteboards are handy for:
- Writing important keywords about their diagnosis (dysphagia, aspiration)
- Anatomical drawings of the head and neck
- Written cues
- Aphasia therapy
- And so on.
Recommendations: Choose a letter-sized board. Pair it with a marker with a built-in eraser.
10. Pepper spray
I keep this in my pocket, just in case.
We use Sabre’s Pink Pepper Spray. We’ve never had to use it, but it has great reviews and its bright color makes it easy to find.
11. Phone Charger
You’ll likely be streaming podcasts, music, and directions during your drives between patients, and those apps can be battery drainers.
There are a ton of good options to choose from, from car chargers to external battery packs.
12. Phone Mount
I mostly use the phone mount to easily see directions to patients’ houses.
Again, there are many good options. My longest-lasting phone mount is one that suctions to my dash.
13. Sunglasses
Protect your eyes from strain, and look fly while doing so.
14. Emergency Car Kit
The best emergency car kits include:
- Tire gauge
- Jumper cables
- Duct tape
- Flashlight
- Basic tools: wrench, pliers, hammer, etc.
15. Trunk Organizer
Trunk organizers are typically soft-sized and have 2-3 compartments.
I keep extra PPE in here, including gowns, N-95 masks, and shoe protectors.
I also store extra naming cards, drink thickener, and workbooks.
16. Comfortable Shoes
Even though you’ll spend much of your day sitting, we still recommend comfortable shoes for the trek between your car and a patient’s home.
Hokas, Crocs, and Birkenstock clogs are great options.
17. Back Up Wardrobe
Bodily fluids, furry pets, and food are typical culprits for staining your work wardrobe. Have back ups.
Scrubs are an easy and appropriate go-to. Nowadays, many brands come in regular, tall, petite, and maternity sizes.
18. Lined Notepad.
Clinical Purpose: While I bring handouts and worksheets with me, sometimes I’ll just use a piece of paper and write my handout. I typically reserve this for the patient who has very mild symptoms and therefore only needs a strategy or two.
Or, I’ll write a parsed-down handout for a patient who has cognitive deficits and would benefit from less complexity and fewer distractors.
19. Dollar Store Swag
Clinical Purpose: Dollar stores are good for purchasing functional materials for patients to use in their daily lives.
Recommendations: Calendars, monthly planners, white boards, highlighters, pencil grips, and large print word search puzzles can be used during cognitive treatment.
20. Workout Shoes (Or More Crocs)
For an easy transition from work to the gym, a run, a hike, or maybe even a round of pickleball.
More Resources
References
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2026). 2025 Member and affiliate profile. www.asha.org.
Brewer, C. (2025). The Adult Speech Therapy Workbook: Second Edition.
National Center for Health Statistics. (2026). Data from the National Post-acute and Long-term Care Study. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/npals/webtables/overview.htm#table4
