Family perspectives from three aphasia centers in Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Speech-language pathologists and social workers at the three Aphasia Centres in Ontario, Canada, work in partnership with aphasic adults and their families to increase communicative access to participation in various aspects of social and community life. The delivery of optimal service in this context requires an expansion of the traditional role played by speech-language pathologists in the field of aphasia. Illustrative ideas, activities, and programs developed by the three centers are described with emphasis on the benefits of a professional partnership between the professions of speech-language pathology and social work.

Negotiating Communicative Access in Practice: A Study of a Memoir Group for People With Aphasia

“…To provide more accessible communicative resources for the consent process, I developed an illustrated consent form. I used images from Pictographic Communication Resources (Kagan, Winckel, & Shumway, 1996), which Kagan (1998) created to facilitate communicative access in supported conversation approaches. My consent form (see Figures 1 and 2) matches concise text with supporting images in an attempt to make communicative modes available for a range of communicators’ abilities and preferences.…”