Building Regional Capacity in Aphasia Expertise
The Northwestern Ontario Regional Stroke Network recently hosted a free community workshop titled “Introduction to Supportive Conversation for Adults with Aphasia”. This event took place on Monday May 9th, 2016 at the Lake of the Woods District Hospital in Kenora, ON. The presenter was Lindsay Strickland, a Speech-Language Pathologist from Riverside Health Care Facilities in Fort Frances, ON.
The target audience was conversation partners for adults with aphasia such as family members, health care providers, or friends. The 1/2 day workshop included a mix of theory and practical activities. The workshop was designed to help people who “know more than they can say” express their opinions and feelings in a way that makes them feel valued & heard. Through the program’s techniques, conversation partners such as family members, health care providers, or friends, can help break down the communication barrier and help people with aphasia re-join life’s conversations.
This event was attended by a total of 22 participants, including many different health care and non-health care provider roles from across the entire continuum of stroke care. Evaluation of the workshop showed that the event met or exceeded the expectations of the participants. Positive feedback was provided regarding the workshop, some quotes from the evaluation included:
I enjoyed… “…the simplicity. After being taught how to combine actions and other prompts and layering gestures if required, we become much more engaged in communication with each other.”
“Great job! The information was presented in a format that made it easy to understand and absorb in a meaningful and practical way. I did not walk away feeling overloaded with information and trying to remember what I had learned”
“I was very thankful that this workshop was made available to non clinicians as well”.
We wish to acknowledge Lake of the Woods District Hospital for providing the venue and Riverside Health Care for support of the facilitator.
For more information on Supported Conversation for Adults with Aphasia (SCA™) please visit the Aphasia Institute website: www.aphasia.ca
For more information regarding this article, please contact nwostroke@tbh.net