Recently, David delivered a free talk on stroke awareness and aphasia to the local community at the Concord Presbyterian Church hall. Remarkably – despite his famously poor technology skills – David manage to co-ordinate his projector, screen, speakers and computer and, at one stage, even flirted with multi-tasking: answering questions while setting up a video case-study! He also fielded some terrific questions.
According to the National Stroke Foundation, around 1 in 6 Australians will have a stroke in their lifetimes, and it was no surprise that almost everyone at the session could identify a friend or family member who had suffered a stroke.
Most participants identified speech and language problems as common effects of a stroke – but very few people knew what the term “aphasia” meant or the role speech pathologists play in helping stroke survivors maximise their communication skills. As a profession, we have a lot more work to do educating our local communities about these important issues.
For more information about stroke, check out the National Stroke Foundation’s great website.
Excellent information about aphasia can be found at the:
- Australian Aphasia Association;
- (Adelaide-based) Talkback Association for Aphasia;
- Centre for Clinical Excellence in Aphasia Research;
- Aphasia Hope Foundation; and
- Aphasia Institute.
Further aphasia-related contact links can be found here.
We’d like to thank the Elders of Concord Presbyterian Church and, in particular, Mr Jim Park, for allowing us to use their hall free of charge and for helping us with the set up and clean up.
We hope to do more of these free talks later this year. If you would like David to speak about stroke and/or aphasia at your next local community event or meeting, please give us a call.
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Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.
Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language
Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.
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