Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology (Jan 2019)

Expert group meeting on aphasia: A report

  • Apoorva Pauranik,
  • Annamma George,
  • Aparna Sahu,
  • Ashima Nehra,
  • Avanthi Paplikar,
  • Chitralekha Bhat,
  • Gopee Krishnan,
  • Harsimar Kaur,
  • Jitendra Saini,
  • P A Suresh,
  • Pawan Ojha,
  • Pinky Singh,
  • Pratap Sancheti,
  • Prathibha Karanth,
  • P S Mathuranath,
  • Satyapal Goswami,
  • Sonal Chitnis,
  • N Sundar,
  • Suvarna Alladi,
  • Yasmeen Faroqi-Shah

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/aian.AIAN_330_18
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 2
pp. 137 – 146

Abstract

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A multidisciplinary team of experts took stock of the current state of affairs about many aspects of aphasia in India, including community burden, diagnostic assessment, therapy, rehabilitation, research, education, and advocacy. The broad spectrum of aphasiology was matched by the types of participants ranging from neurologists, speech-language pathologists, clinical psychologists, linguists, to experts in neuroimaging and computer sciences. Threadbare discussion in 16 sessions over 3 days leads to the identification of pressing problems and possible solutions. Many action plans have been envisaged and recommendations made. A few examples with high priority are community-based and hospital-based study incidence and prevalence of aphasia, development of test batteries for the assessment of many components of speech and communication in Indian languages which are validated on rigorous psychometric, and linguistic criteria, national registry for aphasia, educational modules about aphasia for different target groups, resources for advocacy and its training, a bank of research questions and outlines of research protocols for young professionals to pursue. The expert group will continue to oversee execution of some of the actionable plans in short and long term.

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