Every aphasia story is woven from three threads. At the heart is the person with aphasia, but tied to that person are their family and friends, especially caregivers, as well as the professionals such as speech-language pathologists and neurologists. Each member of this triad can learn a lot by listening to each other’s story.

This is why we are giving voice to all three stories in 2019.

Aphasia Threads

We’ve prepared a simple form to help you tell your story. We’re choosing to focus on information that we think other people need to hear about the emotional side of aphasia. For people with aphasia, we want to know about the way your relationships have strengthened or faded away and advice for those earlier in their journey. When it comes to caregivers, we want to hear which tools or apps help you aid your loved one with aphasia as well as what you wish SLPs knew about your situation. For professionals, we want to hear why you chose to work with people with aphasia and what you observe about treating aphasia.

We will be alternating stories weekly, presenting all three points-of-view each month. Our hope is that everyone walks away from this project with a greater understanding of how to best work together to navigate aphasia.

Who Should Participate?

The short answer is everyone who has aphasia as part of their world.

This project is open to everyone in the aphasia community and will be an ongoing project in 2019. In fact, we believe this would be a great project for support groups to tackle together, turning in individual entries while thinking about it together as part of a session.

We recognize that people with aphasia have more than one caregiver, and those caregivers live nearby and can speak about the day-to-day world while others live far away and offer support in other forms. We would love to hear from all friends and family who support a person with aphasia.

Unlike our recent affiliate highlight series where we asked that only one member from each clinic fill out the feature form for the whole team, this is a project that we believe benefits from each person in the clinic turning in their own entry and stating their own point-of-view.

So everyone who fits into one of these categories is welcome to join, regardless of how aphasia has entered your world.

How to Participate

Ready to tell your story? Click over to fill out the form. After you complete that form, Melissa will reach out to request any images you’d like to include with the story as well as any additional questions. You’ll be contacted a second time when we know your publication date.

If you have questions about the project, please email Melissa at melissa@aphasia.org rather than leaving a comment on this post.