Meaningful life participation : you can be part of it too

Abstract

Stroke is a major cause of disability worldwide and it is a leading cause of acquired communication disorders, such as aphasia, dysarthria and apraxia of speech. Nearly 14 million new strokes are estimated to occur annually, and 80 million people are considered to be stroke survivors worldwide. Globally, 1 in 4 people over the age of 25 is at risk of having a stroke at some point in life (World Stroke Organisation, 2020). Prevention of stroke is considered to be the primary goal to reduce the numbers. Yet, health care professionals are faced with new people acquiring strokes every day and we have a huge responsibility to attend to them. Here, I will focus on the responsibility we have to attend to and protect the basic human right to communication. International studies have exposed staggering figures – up to 88% of stroke patients will have one type of communication disorder (O’Halloran et al., 2009), and one third of them will have a language disorder called aphasia, affecting the ability to use and/or understand spoken and/or written language (Brady et al., 2016). This means that right now 27 million people worldwide have aphasia. [excerpt]