Therapy can take a direct or indirect form and depends on the functional aspects an individual with aphasia aims to target with therapy. The ICF offers a theoretical framework that aids in developing a treatment map aiding in human functioning (Papathanasiou et al., 2013). Some clients are comfortable with the therapist taking the lead, while others prefer directing the rehabilitation. However, the most extensive section prefers a collaborative approach. Good clinicians use expertise and skill to negotiate the process. Evidence suggests that clients that choose a collaborative approach exhibit better outcomes than their counterparts with a skewed dynamic with the therapist (Papathanasiou et al., 2013). Speech pathologists mainly diagnose aphasia in its acute stages after a stroke. The first days after a stroke are crucial for an individual with aphasia. It is important to note that these people cope with trauma and cannot discern their immediate environment, exhibiting turbulent emotions and an inability to express healthcare needs. Therapy entails five steps, information sharing and gathering, collaborative goal setting, pretherapy assessment, therapy, and reassessment (Papathanasiou et al., 2013). Therapists and clients can repeat these steps in the number of cycles required. The principle of neuroplasticity indicates that intensive therapy enhances greater recovery.
Living with Aphasia: A Client-Centered Approach
Individuals with aphasia and those they are linked with indicate that life with aphasia involves various psychosocial adjustments. It will help if health professionals gain an insider’s perspective to make better decisions when dealing with these individuals (Papathanasiou et al., 2013). They should listen to stories from these individuals and their families. It is important to note there are challenges in service provision in this sector, evidenced by ongoing medical, psychological, and social impairment based on neurological alterations to a person’s communicative and language processing abilities. Aphasia treatment entails a client-centered approach that deals with three essential tenets of therapeutic relationships: therapeutic genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and empathetic understanding (Papathanasiou et al., 2013). Occupational therapy encompasses various communication factions, including information provision to boost clients’ capacity to make good decisions. Aphasia also illustrates various emotional and social impacts, with people facing these issues, and their families, describing the experience as a journey. Conventional elements include the distress and trauma that one finds themselves. They are treading on an unpredictable road that entails unchartered waters, facing loss, recovery, and adapting to a varying way of life.
Dementia and Related Cognitive Disorders
Dementia is an illness that involves acquiring and increasingly exhibiting impairment in various cognitive domains. It is a severe syndrome that may reduce one’s competence in issues such as occupation, daily living, and social interaction. It affects various cognitive domains, including executive function, attention, memory, language, and visuospatial ability (Papathanasiou et al., 2013). Cognitive impairment in the previously mentioned domains does not involve delirium. Varying dementia has unique cognitive signatures that indicate major changes in individuals’ neuropathological patterns (Papathanasiou et al., 2013). Advanced dementia involves reduced synapses and neurons in subcortical regions and the cerebral cortex. The loss eventually leads to major atrophy in some brain regions, particularly in the medial temporal lobe, hippocampus, frontal cortex, cingulate gyrus, and parietal lobe (Papathanasiou et al., 2013). In the long run, neuronal atrophy moves to the cortex. Episodic memory is a part of one’s long-term memory, the declarative system. It involves the capacity to consciously remember episodes and events with precise information concerning space constraints and the time where these events happened. On the other hand, declarative memory deals with the entorhinal, parahippocampal, and perirhinal cortices (Papathanasiou et al., 2013). Advanced dementia primarily targets declarative memory
Reference
Papathanasiou, I., & Coppens, P. (2022). Aphasia and related neurogenic communication disorders. Jones & Bartlett Learning.