Joint Workshop: Iceland – Life of Neurological Patients
Joint Workshop: Iceland – Life of Neurological Patients
On October 17, 2024, we organized a joint workshop on “ISLAND – The Life of Neurological Patients”. Attendance was large both in person and online 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 project coordinator Evelína Milfortová, DiS, first introduced Cerebrum, its main goals and mission and introduced all the speakers who were: Mrs. Thorunn Hanna Halldorsdottir M.Sc., Helga Thors PhD, CCC-SLP, Anna Berglind Svansdottir M.S. and Mgr. Jana Horynová, PhD. All listed experts work as clinical speech therapists and have many years of experience specifically with neurological patients after strokes and trauma.
Thorunn Hanna Halldorsdottir introduced the Heilaheill organization and its goals, and talked about the overall funding of non-profit organizations in Iceland, which are partly financed by lottery and betting proceeds. She also introduced a special application “SLAG” that interested people fill out on their phone as stroke prevention. The country has a population of about 380,000 in a relatively large area where neighbours live tens of kilometres away and help is not within reach. In the event that an individual starts to show symptoms of a stroke, they just press the dot on the app and the GPS will lock them (10-meter accuracy), so the paramedics know the person has symptoms of a stroke and take off. Finally, she mentioned the FAST HEROES campaign, which she and Heilaheill joined in 2021, which aims to train mostly children to recognize the signs of stroke in their family members.
Helga Thors presented the topic “Living with Aphasia in Iceland – from acute to chronic phase”. She started with a short statistic – approximately 400 people a year have a stroke in Iceland, of which one third are then diagnosed with aphasia (note: an acquired disorder of speech production and comprehension). She listed the roles of clinical speech and language therapists in different departments, and the specialised teams that deal with this issue, e.g. after stroke, after brain injury, Parkinson’s team, head and neck cancer team, memory clinic team, teams working with neurogenic communication disorders, etc. She spoke about providing counselling to both affected individuals and family members. They will invite relatives or friends of the affected person to meet with the professionals if they have any interest or questions. Doctors (in the neurology department) will sometimes send referrals and request that therapists bring the individual to the outpatient clinic for a diagnosis and interview.
She described the methods they use for treatment, such as communication cards, worksheets, pictures, laptops and computers with speech synthesis. When patients are discharged from the neurology department, they are usually prepared for a more detailed speech and language test using standardised tests, these test for example: aphasia levels, word finding, reading comprehension and reading speed, language skills and expressing themselves (describing a picture / explaining how things are done). Helga concluded by mentioning that there is a small number of clinical speech therapy professionals in Iceland, unfortunately our two countries have this in common.
Anna Berglind Svansdottir talked about the group speech therapy for neurological aphasia patients in Iceland, which is provided to these people 3 times a month on Saturdays at the premises of the Heilaheill organization, always attended by two speech therapists. The aim of these groups, apart from direct therapy, is to have social activities, to be heard and have a voice, to share and chat online from home, to see how others are dealing with speech disorders and to meet people who are experiencing similar things. She mentioned common consequences of speech impairment, which are: social isolation, depression, few opportunities to chat and share, difficulty meeting new people, and the needs of these people, which include connecting with people with aphasia, augmentative and alternative communication, partners for practice and education.
She also described how group therapy works, consisting of a brief introduction, setting the theme for the day, communicating the theme, summarizing the therapy, and introducing the theme for the following week. Finally, she quoted statements from some of the group participants, “Communication partners must actively listen with patience and interest. Please don’t give up when we are trying to tell you something.” “Our caregivers and family need take support, both in the acute phase and after our discharge from hospital.” “Aphasia doesn’t affect our intelligence, but it does affect our ability to use it.”
Jana Horynova summarised the foreign exchange visit she took part in together with clinical speech and language therapist Mgr. Bc. Michal Kraft. She spoke about her findings from the perspective of a clinical speech therapist and guided the participants through the entire programme of the Czech delegation in Iceland. She mentioned particularly positive perceptions regarding the benefits of establishing international cooperation, learning about the approach to neurological patients in another country, praised the emphasis on multidisciplinarity and interconnectedness of patient care in Iceland, and the importance of space and material facilities for the practice of her profession.
About the speakers:
Thorunn Hanna Halldorsdottir M.Sc.
She studied Psychology at University of Iceland and Speech and Language Pathology at the Department of Human Communication Dalhousie University, Canada. She has extensive eperience in working with neurogenic communication difficulties in acute and chronic phase. Currently she works at Kjarkur Rehabilitation as a speech language pathologist, as well as leading the team work and mapping the clinical rehabilitation procedures. She is also an Adjunct professor at the University of Iceland, with the specialty of Evidence Based Practice, Acquired Brain Injury and Alternative and Augmentative Communication.
Helga Thors Ph.D. CCC-SLP
She studied Icelandic, Sign Language Linguistics and Sign Language Interpretation at the University of Iceland. She has a MSc degree in Speech Language Therapy from the University of Reading, UK and a Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of South Carolina, USA. She does clinical work, part-time, with patients at Landspitali, University Hospital and she runs her own private practice where she provides speech therapy for people with neurogenic communication difficulties. Helga is also an aduct professor of Speech Pathology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Iceland, and the Practicum Coordinator for Speech Pathology students. Helga specializes in Stroke, Adult Language Disorders, Evidence Based Practice and Student Supervision.
Anna Berglind Svansdóttir M.S.
She studied Icelandic at the University of Iceland and holds a Master’s of degree from Speech and Language Pathology. The project of her Master‘s thesis was training communication partners in the field of aphasia for healthcare professionals. She works in private practice, providing speech therapy to children and adolescents with communication difficulties, as well as to individuals with aphasia or other neurogenic communication disorders. She collaborates with a care home and a healthcare facility in her area, where she also provides speech therapy.
Mgr. Jana Horynová, PhD.
She graduated with a Master‘s degree in Special Education with a focus on speech and language pathology at the Faculty of Education, Charles University, Prague, where she went on to complete her PhD studies. Currently she works as a teacher of speech and language pathology at the Faculty of Education and the First Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague. She also works as a clinical speech and language therapist therapist at the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the General University Hospital and First Faculty of Medicine in Prague where she treats adult patients with acquired neurogenic communication disorders and provides them with individual and group speech therapy. She also participates in field speech therapy care within the non-profit organization Aphasia Club.
Collaboration continues and a joint publication of a practical booklet for group communication for people with acquired brain injury is now in preparation. The expected length of this booklet will be approximately 70 pages. The booklet will be published in March 2025 in the Czech language and in 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, for example, at conferences of neurologists, clinical speech and language therapists and occupational therapists
Many thanks to all the organisers, speakers, volunteers, and of course the EEA and Norway Grants for helping us to make this workshop happen.
This project is funded by the kind support of the EEA and Norway Grants.
