The National Brain Appeal
The National Brain Appeal Aphasia Programme
The National Brain Appeal has committed to raise £600,000 to create a new Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Programme (ICAP) at Queen Square.
Story
People with aphasia have difficulty understanding and using language or speech. It is usually caused by damage to the left side of the brain most commonly as the result of a stroke, traumatic brain injury or tumour and is thought to affect around 350,000 people in the UK.
Speech and language therapy can make a huge difference to those living with Aphasia but is rarely available to NHS patients for more than a very short time. The Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Programme (ICAP), launched in 2019, improves language function in adults with aphasia by drastically increasing the dose and intensity of therapy that patients receive.
Participants in the programme are provided with 100 hours of therapy (compared with a current national average of 12 hours in total). They are treated in groups of four and receive personalised support for seven hours a day, four days a week, over a period of four weeks. The programme also offers psychological support, and opportunities for family and friends to be involved in some sessions. At the end of the programme, patients are given independent work to complete at home and monitored at three months, six months and after a year.
While the therapy itself is neither radical nor new, the dose and intensity is with patients receiving a mixture of one-to-one therapy, group therapy, eTherapy, psychological support and vocational rehabilitation.
Caroline Levitt, 55, is among the patients to have benefited from the programme after a stroke left her paralysed on one side and totally unable to speak. I threw myself into it, she says of ICAP.
I was so committed to making the most of every minute that I was exhausted by the end of each day. I was given strategies to make my sentences complete, something Id never been taught before, as well as help with reading and writing emails and texts. The sessions I had with the psychologist gave me the confidence that I had lost following my stroke. My speaking is so much better. The course is superb! It has done me so much good and I am motivated to improve more by following the homework they have set us.
The programme is led by Jennifer Crinion and Alexander Leff, professors of speech and language therapy and cognitive rehabilitation respectively.
It is never too late for the appropriate rehabilitation for patients with aphasia, says Professor Crinion. People are being left with severe problems and not improving because they have not had the correct dose of therapy. The 12 hours that the NHS on average provides falls way short of the 100 hours the research evidence has proven is needed to help them recover significant language function.
How you can help
Thanks to our terrific supporters, the National Brain Appeal has already raised £350,000 for ICAP, thereby helping to transform the way that aphasia is treated. We need to raise a further £250,000 to enable the team to generate a proof-of-concept model and sufficient outcome data to take to NHS England and clinical commissioning groups in order to apply for longer-term funding. Please help us to reach our goal by making a donation today or taking on a fundraising challenge or event. Your support will help us to ensure that many more people like Caroline can improve their language function through participation in ICAP.
Thank you!
Please help us to raise the remaining £250,000 by making a donation today or taking on a fundraising challenge or event. Your support really will make a huge difference.
