Icelandic delegation to Prague

REPORT FROM THE VISIT TO PRAGUE: DAY 1

The delegation from our partner Icelandic patient organization Heilaheill, consisting of clinical speech therapists Ms. Thorunn Hanna Halldorsdottir M. Sc., Helga Thors PhD, CCC-SLP and Anna Berglind Svansdottir, met with the project coordinator Evelina Milfortová, DiS. in the early evening after their arrival and worked hard together to prepare for the joint workshop (conference) “Iceland – the life of neurological patients”. We are very happy that Thorrun, Helga and Anna will share their experience of working with neurological patients. All three work as clinical speech therapists and have many years of experience specifically with neurological patients after strokes and trauma. Another subject of the meeting was the organizational matters of their stay.

REPORT FROM THE VISIT TO PRAGUE: DAY 2

On the second day we attended a joint workshop (or conference) together. Attendance both in person and online was abundant and we learned a lot of useful information, e.g. about the functioning of patient organisations in Iceland, neurorehabilitation and speech therapy groups for aphathics. The funding of non-profit organisations in Iceland, which are partly funded by lottery and betting proceeds, was discussed. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to introduce something like this in the Czech Republic?

Ms. Thorrun introduced a special “SLAG” application that interested people fill out on their phone in advance as a stroke prevention. There are about 380,000 inhabitants in the country over a relatively large area where neighbours live tens of kilometres away and help is not at hand. In the event that an individual starts to show symptoms of a stroke, they just press a point on the app and the GPS will lock them with a 10-meter accuracy, so rescuers know that a person has symptoms of a stroke and take off. Ms Helga presented on living with aphasia in Iceland – from acute to chronic phase and Ms Anna spoke about group speech therapy for neurological aphasia patients in Iceland.

After the workshop “Iceland – the life of neurological patients”, Thorrun, Helga and Anna spent the whole afternoon at the Rehabilitation Clinic of the 1st Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Albertov, where they were accompanied by clinical speech therapist Mgr. Jana Horynová, PhD. and clinical speech therapist Mgr. Bc. Michal Kraft. They were welcomed by the head of the clinic, MUDr. Yvona Angerová, who made the visit possible and personally attended to the Icelandic delegation throughout the visit.

REPORT FROM THE VISIT TO PRAGUE: DAY 3

Friday was the day of the visit to the Sonololab neurological clinic, where Mrs. Dagmar Součková, M.D., neurologist and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Cerebrum welcomed all the ladies. One of the topics discussed was the specificity of brain damage in the younger generation.

The afternoon programme of our delegation also included Cerebrum members and a visit to the community centre. The project coordinator Evelina first introduced the members to the main objectives of our joint project with Heilaheill and introduced the whole delegation. Mrs. Thorrun then told the members about the Heilaheill organization and the overall functioning of patient organizations in Iceland. Our members introduced themselves individually with a short story about themselves and the debate developed into a full discussion with lots of questions from our members. Finally, Helga gave some basic information about Iceland, talked about its beauty and culture, and we ended the program with a travel video.

REPORT FROM THE VISIT TO PRAGUE: DAY 4

The last day was devoted to an organizational meeting, a summary of the cooperation so far and preparations regarding the joint publication of a practical booklet for group communication for people with acquired brain damage. The expected length of this booklet will be about 70 pages. The booklet will be published in Czech and Icelandic or English. It will be available mainly electronically on the websites of Cerebrum and Heilaheill and in limited quantities in printed form and will be distributed e.g. at conferences of neurologists, clinical speech therapists and occupational therapists. Finally, a tour of Prague took place.

This project is funded by the kind support of the EEA and Norway Grants.