Challenge Enterprises, Inc. has undertaken the mission to bring information about medical challenges and self-help treatments into both the care facility and the home. This site is devoted to the challenge of living with dysphagia and making available those Challenge Series books that deal with this important health topic. We are proud to showcase a leading author in this emerging field.

Pam Womack, a registered dietitian, has worked in the long-term health care field for over 40 years. She has worked both at the corporate level overseeing care facilities and health institutions in the Washington state area, and as an independent consultant dietitian.

She worked with speech therapists and dietitians to develop the Dysphagia Diet Textures in 1989 and has since been developing teaching materials to aid people that deal with food preparation for swallowing disorders. In 1991 she summarized the results of her research and teaching materials into a book for health care institutions called The Puree Challenge.

Pam's father developed a swallowing problem in the early 90's and Pam discovered that family members and caregivers did not understand the terminology and techniques that the professionals and physicians were using. She further discovered that there were few references a professional dietitian or a home-based caregiver could turn to. As a result, Pam wrote the first edition of The Dysphagia Challenge in 1993.
The Dysphagia Challenge was a popular and ground-breaking book that has since been revised and reprinted two more times, in 1996 and 1999.

Pam is a national speaker and expert on Dysphagia as well as other topics such as quality assurance, clinical documentation, survey preparedness, and operation of dietary departments. She specializes in long term care. Professionals as well as caregivers have praised Pam for her common sense approach to dealing with this growing prevalence of dysphagia and the challenge it presents to home care.

You may order copies of The Dysphagia Challenge directly from Challenge Books at about $13 per copy (with tax included) through this website. The NEW 2009 Revision of her third book, Scoop It, Mold It, Pipe It!!! that involves applying the HACCP guidelines and Food Code 2007 and using commercial-grade thickeners and preparation techniques are available for health care providers at $24 per copy (with tax included). Both books are priced simply on a cost-recovery basis to aid in getting this book into the hands of those who need it.

As for Pam's other Challenge Series books, after three printings, Pam's first institution-oriented book on dysphagia, The Puree Challenge is currently out of print.

Go to the book ordering page.