Who are we and what is aphasia?
Who are we?
- 3 million people have aphasia.
- Grows by 250,000 each year.
- A third of stroke survivors will have aphasia.
- Few people know about aphasia.
What is aphasia?
- It is a language disorder that limits communication: speech, comprehension, writing, and reading.
- Difficulty with word retrieval is nearly universal.
- Everyone’s aphasia is different, however, treatments are the same through a medical model.
- Nearly 65% of people living with aphasia also experience depression, making recovery progress more difficult.
- The impact on quality of life is more severe than cancer or Alzheimer’s disease.
- After adjusting for age, sex, and other diagnoses, aphasia exhibited the largest negative relationship to the MDS-HSI (−0.085), followed by cancer (−0.072) and Alzheimer disease (−0.062).
- Lam, Jonathan & Wodchis, Walter. (2010). The Relationship of 60 Disease Diagnoses and 15 Conditions to Preference-Based Health-Related Quality of Life in Ontario Hospital-Based Long-Term Care Residents. Medical care. 48. 380-7. 10.1097/MLR.0b013e3181ca2647.
We do not accept these stats!
We – people with aphasia – are ready to organize to change the current system.
What is PLAN?
The goal of this project is to center people with aphasia, with an emphasis on people of color. We aim to drive innovation and diverse approaches in treating aphasia.
We are people living with aphasia, organizing together for a better future.
“Race Forward founder Dr. Gary Delgado will help advance health equity in the treatment, prevention, and discussion of aphasia, rejoining the organization as Senior Fellow.”
Continue reading PLAN Race Forward Press Release.