Information for Persons with Aphasia and Caregivers
COVID-19 Resources:
COVID-19 Coping Resources.docx: Download COVID-19 Coping Resources.docx: Access this document that provides information on how to better cope during these trying times. This document contains mental health wellness tips for quarantine as well as local helplines and websites for information on locating community resources (e.g., financial, food, masks etc.).
Aphasia-friendly basic information about COVID-19: Links to an external site. This flyer provides information about COVID-19 and general recommendations for its management.
Aphasia Access COVID-19 Resources Links to an external site.: This site provides aphasia-friendly instructions for connecting to Zoom and has flyers with picture-based information about COVID-19.
Local Resources (San Diego, CA):
SDSU Speech-Language Clinic: Links to an external site. The SDSU clinic provides individual and group therapy for a range of disorders, including aphasia, dysarthria, apraxia of speech, and problems with thinking, memory, organization, planning, and other language, speech, and cognitive problems that can arise following a stroke or traumatic brain injury. Services are provided by graduate students in the SDSU School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences under the close supervision of certified, licensed Speech-Language Pathologists.
The Comebackers Neuro Club at Alvarado Hospital: Links to an external site. The Comebackers Neuro Club is dedicated to providing opportunities for those who have experienced a neurological incident, such as a stroke, traumatic brain injury or other neurological impairment. Survivors, family members and caregivers are offered education, recreation and a support network to promote ongoing recovery.
Survivors from any area hospital are welcome to participate! To read the Comebackers’ newsletter The Savvy Survivor, click here Links to an external site..
Aphasia Communication Group: Links to an external site. If a stroke, brain injury, degenerative neurological disorder or other condition has affected your ability speak, write and understand language, we invite you to join our aphasia communication group. The group allows people with aphasia to practice their communication skills in a supportive environment led by a speech pathologist. The group setting provides educational information about aphasia, plus an opportunity to meet others with aphasia for ongoing support. Facilitated by Scripps Memorial Hospital's licensed speech-language pathologists, the group is free and meets in La Jolla on the first and third Thursdays of every month.
San Diego Brain Injury Foundation: Links to an external site. Support groups, classes and services around San Diego for stroke and brain injury survivors.
VIP Neurorehabilitation Links to an external site.: We bring top quality outpatient NeuroRehabilitation care to disabled military, veterans, children, and to ALL who are in need. Located in San Diego, California, we treat adult and pediatric patients, from ages 4 years old and up. Our focus is on those who have difficulty moving secondary to Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Brain Injury, ALS, Cerebral Palsy, Spinal Cord Injury, and multiple traumas.
Statewide Resources (CA):
Aphasia Center of California: Links to an external site.Through our community-based programs in Oakland and Menlo Park, California, and our highly experienced speech-language pathologists, we provide excellent personalized service, deep understanding, and compassion for those whose lives have been impacted by aphasia.
Aphasia Support Group at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Valencia, CA: Links to an external site. Adults with aphasia and individuals with other communication difficulties are invited to attend our monthly support group meetings for guided conversation practice, educational sessions, and connecting with others in a positive environment. Friends, family, and caregivers are welcome! Each session is facilitated by a certified Speech-Language Pathologist and participation is free!
Schurig Center for Brain Injury Recovery: Links to an external site. Schurig Center is a non-profit, post-acute therapeutic center offering an array of rehabilitative and supportive services designed specifically to help brain injury survivors and their families live fully, meaningfully, and happily. Scholarships are offered for those living on a low income to ensure everyone has access to care. Our services are offered in a welcoming community center surrounded by a beautiful garden located on the College of Marin campus in Larkspur, CA. We welcome people from throughout the Bay Area.
North American Resources:
Adler Aphasia Center in New Jersey: Links to an external site. Center speech-language pathologists provide direct services for people with aphasia and their families. We conduct research to prove the impact of our programs and services. We conduct research to prove the impact of our programs and services.
Aphasia House at University of Central Florida: Links to an external site.APHASIA HOUSE offers an intensive outpatient therapy program for individuals with aphasia, a disorder that results from damage to parts of the brain that control language and speech. Aphasia House clients receive therapy under the direction of distinguished clinical educators in aphasia. The clinical educators are assisted by UCF graduate students preparing to become professional speech-language pathologists. They work together to assess the latest clinical research to develop a customized course of therapy for each client. The program takes place in a home-like setting created in a beautiful new facility in the Central Florida Research Park. Links to an external site.
Aphasia Institute (Toronto, Ontario, CA): Links to an external site.This institute provides a community aphasia program, education and support program, outreach program, peer leader program, family support and education program.
Big Sky Aphasia Program at University of Montana: Links to an external site.This program provides speech-language and cognitive-communication evaluations, individual speech-language therapy, telepractice services, aphasia groups, intensive comprehensive aphasia programs.
Stroke Comeback Center (Washington DC): Links to an external site.The Stroke Comeback Center is a community of survivors of stroke and other brain trauma committed to living successful and productive lives. We are a non-profit organization that offers support along the slow road to better. Our members, our professionals, our volunteers, our coaches, and our families know that recovery continues forever. We are the only center of this kind in the Washington, DC area. Our center provides programs and classes for survivors with aphasia and other communication difficulties using a social approach, focuses on all aspects of recovery: speech, reading, writing and comprehension, cognition and fitness, uses interactive technologies tailored to each of our members and continues to provide affordable fees through donor-funded scholarships.
VA Pittsburgh’s Program for Intensive Residential Aphasia Treatment and Education (PIRATE): Links to an external site. Provides treatment to Veterans and active duty service members with aphasia. PIRATE is offered throughout the year with a maximum of six sessions per year. Each session is four weeks long, and therapy takes place on weekdays during business hours. Patients’ family members can participate in select educational and therapy sessions.
Online Resources:
American Stroke Association Caregiver Support: Links to an external site.Several resources are available for caregivers on how they can support their family member with stroke and how they can support themselves on this website.
American Stroke Association Stroke Family Warmline: The Stroke Family Warmline connects stroke survivors and their families with an American Stroke Association team member who can provide support, helpful information or just a listening ear. Our trained specialists in the ASA’s National Service Center can answer your questions about stroke. Call us 8 a.m.-5 p.m. CT Monday-Friday at 1-888-4-STROKE (1-888-478-7653).
Aphasia Hope Foundation: Links to an external site.Aphasia Hope Foundation is a public 501(c) 3 non-profit foundation that has a two-fold mission: (1) to promote research into the prevention and cure of aphasia and (2) to ensure all survivors of aphasia and their caregivers are aware of and have access to the best possible treatments available. The Foundation was started with the goal of gathering news, research, therapies, and experiences regarding Aphasia, and sharing this information with the families that desperately needed it. Today, with the creation of our website, we are the largest collaborative online resource for aphasia.
Aphasia Recovery Connection: Links to an external site.Aphasia Recovery Connection (ARC) is an online support group. The group meets 24/7 on Facebook. They have a public Facebook page and a private group page, which you can request to join. There are regular chats that they organize using Oovoo (free video chatting software). Members need access to a computer, internet, Facebook, & Oovoo (free video chatting software). Members can also meet in person through the events that ARC organizes such as aphasia cruises. Click the title/link above for more information!
National Aphasia Association: Links to an external site. The National Aphasia Association (NAA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1987 by Martha Taylor Sarno, MA, MD,(hon) as the 1st National organization dedicated to advocating for persons with aphasia and their families. Several of our board members, including the President, are people with Aphasia or family members. Our goal is to provide access to research, education, rehabilitation, therapeutic and advocacy services to individuals with aphasia and their caregivers. The NAA acts as a syndicate of resources, promoting sense of community among individuals and caregivers.
SpeechBITE: Links to an external site. SpeechBITE is a database of intervention studies across the scope of speech pathology practice.