Aphasia Snapshot: Let’s Talk About Support Groups

The Aphasia Snapshot has come full circle again. Last May, we put up the following set of questions. This May, we are covering the same topic to see how the answers changed.

We want to hear your thoughts on support groups, whether you currently have one or not. When we talk about a support group, we mean a scheduled meeting where you can practice speech or get emotional support from other people also experiencing aphasia. This is different from an informal, drop-in chat, such as our monthly NAA Aphasia Cafe.

We want to know about your support group or what you think makes a good support group. Fill out the question set below one time only before July 15, 2022 at 3 pm ET. We’ll be back at the end of July with the community results, comparing them to last year’s results.

Ready to jump into the next Aphasia Snapshot and share your thoughts?

What Is an Aphasia Snapshot?

If you’ve ever attended one of our Aphasia Cafe chats, you know that we love to ask questions. We ask them when you sign up, and we run polls during the chat. The reason is simple: It gives everyone a chance to have their voice heard and participate in the discussion topic, especially when communication is difficult. By clicking a box or two, people who participate in our questions participate in the conversation.

We’ve expanded this project to our site to loop in people who may not be able or want to attend the chats. We find these questions provide an interesting snapshot of our community and bring more people into the conversation. Moreover, the results spark conversation. Do the majority of people share your opinion? How does your experience of aphasia overlap with people around you? It’s interesting to hear how many people feel the same way you do.

Each month, we introduce a short series of questions to take a snapshot of the community. Unless noted, these questions are for people with aphasia. If you are a caregiver or professional, we hope you pass along these questions to the people with aphasia in your life. Fill out the questions together, or encourage the people with aphasia in your life to add their voice to the discussion. This additional way to communicate makes everyone part of the conversation.

Each question set is open for a few weeks and then closes to new answers. At that time, we release the results in a blog post and a downloadable PDF so people can talk about this community snapshot. These are not meant to be scientific research but merely a way to take the community’s pulse and collect ideas around a situation.

We welcome ideas for future Aphasia Snapshots. Have a topic you’re curious about? Send the idea to [email protected], and we may turn your topic into a future Aphasia Snapshot.