Awareness of aphasia
Few people have heard of aphasia and even fewer know how to support someone who has it. This is a problem and is causes isolation and low mood. One problem is that you cannot see aphasia, it is hidden. Another is that is is different for everyone and the type of support needed is also different. It can also change from day to day, within a day and often according to the surroundings or a person’s health. Its tricky! Speakeasy members tell us that it would help if more people knew about aphasia and what to do, then they could have a conversation in the street with a neighbour, get help when asking for something in a shop, or be supported to talk properly to the bank.
Speakeasy works with members and volunteers to increase awareness of aphasia. We can deliver talks to community groups and businesses; previous talks have been for such clubs as rotary, lions, probus, townswomen’s guild, women’s institutes, church groups, schools, rehabilitation teams, stroke units and other charities. Our members help with our talks so that people can hear the inside story for themselves, this has so much impact, and it also helps the members to develop skills and confidence themselves (we craftily build opportunities for improvement into all our activity!)
We like to seek out as many opportunities as we can to educate people. We are happy to go on radio or TV, or be interviewed for a newspaper article.