A few weeks ago I put together some materials for an in-service training on aphasia. I wanted to share it for those who are looking for an in-service to perform, or for those who would like to learn a little more about it.
Understanding and Working with Aphasia
Presented By: Justin Zarb
Aphasia: Quick Fact Sheet
Who Gets Aphasia and What Causes It?
- By far the most common cause of aphasia is stroke. However, any disease or injury that damages brain tissue can cause aphasia (head injury, aneurysm, brain tumors). It is estimated that about 20% of individuals who suffer a stroke will also incur a serious loss of speech and language.
What is Aphasia?
- Aphasia is a total or partial loss of the ability to communicate whether through listening and understanding, speaking, gesturing, reading, or writing.
When Does Aphasia Onset? When Does Aphasia Get Treated?
- Within hours of recovering from a stroke, aphasia will usually become evident if there has been sufficient brain damage. Sometimes the aphasia will be hard to detect if it is a non-oral form such as reading, writing, or gesturing. A trained speech pathologist should perform an evaluation for the stroke victim.
I believe it was yesterday and I saw an article in the Detroit Free Press that pointed out John DeLorean had predicted General Motors’ demise almost decades earlier. Yes, that DeLorean, whose car was featured in Back To The Future. In a book published in the late seventies, titled On A Clear Day You Can See General Motors, DeLorean shared his frustrations with the corporate beheamoth that GM had become, and amazingly, his main bone of contention was the culture of the company.
Although successful as an employee within the company, being promoted to its flagship brands throughout the years, DeLorean eventually left GM because of the culture he described in his book. Mainly, there was an attitude that GM was too big to need to do improvements, that the GM way was inherently the right way, and the fruitfulness the company enjoyed would never and could never pass away.
We who work in long term care, and especially the nursing home, have been hearing about the need for culture change for almost a decade now! Sure, nursing homes continue to generate income and jobs for those they employ, and with the baby boomers coming into retirement, we should all feel very good about our job security. Or should we?
Medical interventions can happen quite frequently when working with the elderly population. Sometimes, they are very necessary. Other times, they inadvertently lead to a really poor outcome for the person.
For instance, my wife and I were planning a natural childbirth, one with as small amount of medical interventions as necessary. Why would one want to forgo the wonders that modern medicine can provide? It was because of the cascade of interventions during labor.
She turned 93!
Today we celebrated one of our members’ 93rd birthday! She’s been with our program for at least the past 4 years that I’ve been working. Although she’s one of the oldest members we have, there aren’t that many others still with us from four years ago when I started.
We had a great day of celebration. We only sang Happy Birthday to her about four times. An hour after the first time we sang someone saw the balloon and asked if it was indeed her birthday. “So why haven’t we sung for her yet?!!!” So we sang again, and again, but it was no chore, we all celebrated the achievement of this small, frail, elderly woman battling dementia. I’ve named some of our other members so I might as well ascribe one for her. I think Ms. Determination will do.
What struck me most today is how much our staff and volunteers have emotionally attached to Ms. Determination. Of course, this includes myself, and I was trying to weigh the pros and cons of becoming attached to the people we care for throughout the day. Is it a good thing? Should we be more or less involved on an emotional level?
A few weeks ago I put together some materials for an in-service training on aphasia. I wanted to share it for those who are looking for an in-service to perform, or for those who would like to learn a little more about it.
