Aphasia Community Center

American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) states: “Aphasia is a language disorder that happens when you have brain damage. Your brain has two halves. Language skills are in the left half of the brain in most people. Damage on that side of your brain may lead to language problems. Damage on the right side of your brain may cause other problems, like poor attention or memory.

Aphasia may make it hard for you to understand, speak, read, or write. It does not make you less smart or cause problems with your thinking. Brain damage can also cause other problems along with Aphasia. You may have muscle weakness in your mouth, called dysarthria. You may have trouble getting your mouth muscles to move the right way to say words, which is called apraxia. You can also have  swallowing problems, called dysphagia.” 1

“A total of 16.93% of 4,339,156 [acute ischemic stroke] patients identified were with Aphasia. The proportion of patients with comorbid Aphasia increased from 13.34% in 2003 to 21.94% in 2014 (P < .0001).”2

Due to these impacts of everyday life and the increasing prevalence of Aphasia, the Sarasota, FL, community took notice of a need in their community.

“The Aphasia Community Center (ACC) was founded in October 2018 as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization to meet the needs of persons with aphasia and their co-survivors.”

This organization provides half-day programs in which members engage in functional group activities to improve and maintain skills in writing, reading, spoken language, math, and related skills. Facilitators (trained volunteers including peers with Aphasia, family, friends, college students, speech-language pathologists, and other community professionals.) use aphasia-friendly materials and supportive techniques to lead these outstanding programs.

This organization is impacting our community daily! Take a look at the site for more details about membership and programs: