Aphasia Portuguese Institute

The "social world" is all about language and communication. Imagine what would be to suddenly loose the ability to say what you think and feel. People with aphasia live this nightmare everyday, and in most cases, it steels forever their familiar, social and emotional welfare. These people become "paralyzed" in a social way, and this paralysis with consequent suffering goes unnoticed. In IPA we want to adress this problem and to build in the community, the necessary COMMUNICATION RAMPS so that...

Every hour, three people have a stroke in Portugal. Half of the survivors can present with aphasia, which is a language disorder due to neurological damage. It does not affect intelligence but affects communication leading to social, emotional and familiar consequences.  In Portugal, the current approaches for people with aphasia are insufficient for a significant recovery of those cronic consequences.

IPA that is bringing to Portugal the best therapeutic practices in the world. The general goals are to minimize the psychosocial impact of aphasia and to promote social inclusion of people with aphasia.

The three axes of intervention within IPA:

1 - The person with aphasia. Better well-being, more interaction, and new opportunities for social participation.

2 - The family and friends. Higher support, further training, and enhanced partnership in the recovery process.

3 - The society. Expanded information and knowledge about aphasia, increased communicative accessibility, and more inclusion.

With the help of our national and international partners, we are ready to take the next step and implement the solution. However, it is essential that society be aware of this problem.

About the author

Paula Valente is a Speech and Language Therapist, social entrepreneur and responsible for the creation of IPA. Over her career she realized that there are important gaps in the therapeutic interventions that are offered to the person with aphasia. That results in frustation to them because they can not achieve the results they would like, and also to their speech therapists.

With the support of partners in Portugal and in another countries, and with a team consisting of a speech therapist, a psychologist, a social worker and volunteers, Paula is convinced that the path will not be easy, but it's possible.

Budget and due dates

The funds that we seek to raise with this crowdfunding campaign is intended to carry out activities to aware and inform various agents of society about aphasia and to create with them the foundations of a joint work to integrate these people.

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