Thursday, February 29th, 12pm EST (5pm UTC)
Presentation in Zoom, accessible via the C-STAR website:
http://cstar.sc.edu/lecture-series/

Psychosocial Aspects of LIVING with Aphasia: Promoting Quality of Life Beyond Language

Blaise Morrison, PhD, HSP-P, CRC, LPC
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The onset of aphasia often creates significant disruptions in the quality of life (QOL) of individuals and their families. Individuals with aphasia, as well as their carepartners/caregivers, experience significantly higher rates of co-occurring psychological disabilities, relational problems, and social isolation compared to the general non-disabled and non-caregiving populations. While communication and language recovery contribute substantially to overall QOL, interventions do not often account for psychological and social factors that may intimately affect QOL despite aphasia recovery. This is one primary explanation why speech language pathologists and rehabilitation clinicians often interact with patients that have experienced significant progress in their aphasia yet experience continued difficulties with psychological health, adjustment to disability, and overall QOL. Psychosocial factors are associated with aspects of language recovery, impact engagement and retention in treatment, and account for significant variability in healthcare outcomes. Psychosocial factors often impact QOL after disability to a greater extent than do biomedical factors, such as the type and severity of the injury/illness. Therefore, it has become critical for health professionals working with the aphasia community to understand the role of psychosocial factors in rehabilitation and to promote QOL beyond language. This presentation provides an overview of psychosocial factors that impact aphasia recovery and QOL, with an emphasis on caregivers/carepartners and the family system. An overview of evidence-based clinical strategies to support psychosocial health and QOL in persons with aphasia and their families will be provided, and recommendations for future research and practice will be explored.
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The online lecture can be followed online from your computer, tablet or smartphone, in Zoom. The zoom link is accessible via the C-STAR website: http://cstar.sc.edu/lecture-series/

The live watch party for this lecture will be in Discovery I room #140 (915 Greene Street, Columbia, SC)

For more information, or to be added to the C-STAR mailing list, contact Dirk den Ouden: [email protected]

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
Clinical Linguistics
Neurolinguistics