In this episode of Brain Friends, we discuss 5 ways everyone can contribute to health equity for Black people with aphasia. We give resources for caregivers to get compensated and encourage speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to support health literacy in clients.

1. Implicit Bias Training- to help practitioners recognize stereotypical beliefs that contribute to health inequities.

2. Workforce Diversity- may help clients with communication and participation in research by having practitioners who look like them.

3. Representation in Research- helps ensure generalization of findings and that all voices are included. http://www.aphasiaresource.org/ Also, how are researchers sharing clinical findings? How many researchers have collected data from participants, published the findings, and gone back to the participants to share their study results?

4. Health Literacy- helps individuals understand medical information to make an informed decision. It is important to encourage care partners and provide disability resources that compensate the caregiver https://www.usa.gov/disability-caregiver

5. Patient Reported Outcomes- helps give people with aphasia a voice in therapy by sharing goals that are important to the individual. Patient-reported outcomes can be challenging to read and should be diversified with large print, pictures, audio versions, or available on assistive devices.

In this episode of Brain Friends, we invite two stakeholders to celebrate Aphasia Awareness Month, Maura Silverman, the executive director of the National Aphasia Association (NAA), and Gee Jackson, a lawyer and stroke survivor with aphasia.

Together we answer two important questions:
1. What do you know about aphasia now that you wish you would have known on day 1?
2. How can we bring awareness to aphasia?

Listen, laugh, and learn how you can spread awareness about aphasia.

Links:
National Aphasia Association- https://aphasia.org/
Aphasia Resource Collaboration Hub (ARCH)- https://aphasiaresource.org/

Does it take a village to recover from a stroke? In this episode of Brain Friends, we talk about aphasia support with Angie's care partner Kiehl Cauthorn.

We discuss the difference between caregivers and care partners, the stages of care in post-stroke aphasia, and advocacy with insurance companies. We give tips to speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and other practitioners on how to include the caregiver/care partner in therapy.

Finally, we remind aphasia survivors that "you are better today than you were yesterday and you will be better tomorrow than you are today". We encourage caregivers and care partners to "stop, listen, be patient, and trust".