An Exciting New Free Online Resource for People with Aphasia

These are exciting and frustrating times for those concerned with the treatment of Aphasia.

• Exciting because an ever-growing body of research and experience shows us that treatment can make a difference.

• Frustrating because most healthcare systems are suffering financial pressures that mean very few people with Aphasia are likely to be allocated enough resources so that they can benefit from these advances – especially as there is increasing evidence that amount and intensity of treatment can be crucial.

The Tavistock Trust for Aphasia is pleased to announce the launch of a new free, online resource designed for people with Aphasia, their carers, as well as for Speech & Language Therapists.

• The aim of the website is to help people with Aphasia, their families and friends, speech and language therapists and/or academics to find software that could help improve communication.

• The plan is to gather onto one website information about all available Aphasia software therapies in the English language.

As information technology becomes ever more a part of everyday life, many people are looking to find software programmes that can help people with Aphasia. This resource will enable them to specify their area of language difficulty and be immediately given a list of available relevant treatment software programs. Detailed information is then provided regarding each program, enabling an informed choice to be made. This tool will make the search and selection process quick, simple and objective.

The resource can be found at: www.aphasiasoftwarefinder.org

The website has been developed under the leadership of Dr Brian Petheram at the Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol. A group of people with Aphasia have contributed to the design. It has no links to any software suppliers or developers.

As this is a rapidly developing field, the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia and Dr Petheram and his team are committed to keeping the resource up to date, including evaluations of new or revised software packages.

The Tavistock Trust for Aphasia would like to thank the Eranda Foundation for their generous support for this project.