The Management of Aphasia By Ruth Hazel Katz

Aphasia is a by-product of a stroke in the left side of the brain, where, in the vast majority of individuals, the language function

is stored

Aphasia is important to discuss in detail for these reasons:

1. Healthcare workers have identified aphasia as the single most challenging aspect of interacting with stroke patients,

2. My personal and professional difficulty in communicating with aphasics

3. The struggle most caregivers have in this area

To me, the letter ‘A’, stands for aphasia, agony, anguish, and the abrupt cessation of the power of speech, wholly or in part

Professor Claire Penn, of the Department of Speech Pathology & Audiology, at Wits University, in her chapter of: ‘Stroke: Caring & Coping’ , (Wits University Press, 1992), defines aphasia - or dysphasia as it is sometimes referred to -

as an impairment in the ability to use symbols

She goes on to say language involves a number of levels: comprehension, expression, reading and writing

In the case of hearing impaired individuala, there are other forms of expression, such as gestures and sign language

An aphasic patient has difficulty in formulating what he or she wants to say, as well as in retrieving and understanding language

Joseph Jaffe, a psychiatrist interested in aphasia, writes:

“Human Beings can adapt themselves to almost any situation if they can communicate about it. Aphasics, however, are

unique in that they have lost the very capability for healing conversations with others that might help them cope with their

disorder. Their disease is essentially cruel, because it interferes with the major vehicle of its own treatment”

During my ‘almost’ two decades as a counsellor for the Stroke Aid Association, Norwood, Johannesburg;

a dynamic executive in his early forties died by his own hand, after a left hemisphere stroke removed his power to speak”