Issue date: 9/4/08 Section: Student Life

(Left to right) Department of Communication Science and Disorders faculty Donna Schemm and Judy Haley in the Human Sciences and Services building's makeshift coffee shop, the site of a four-week group therapy program this summer for people with aphasia and memory-loss disorders.

(Left to right) Second-year graduate students Craig Begalle, Emily Axelson, Dana Kipp, Tonia Riske and Brenna Lindsay offered therapy this summer through coffee shop sessions in the Human Sciences and Services building. The sessions were part of a four-week rehabilitation program aimed at helping people living with aphasia and memory-loss disorders to redevelop communication skills. The program, which was held Wednesdays on campus in June and July, included the coffee shop sessions, as well as separate, hour-long therapy groups.

A group of nine brain trauma and stroke victims found treatment this summer in a most unusual place: a makeshift coffee shop on the north edge of campus.

The shop was part of the setting for a four-week therapy program launched by the university this summer to rehabilitate area patients whose brain injuries had left them unable to communicate.

The program specifically targeted people living with aphasia, a language disorder often caused by stroke and which can leave victims unable to read, write or speak clearly. At least one of the patients had short-term memory loss, a slightly different condition.

Five UW-Eau Claire graduate students helped facilitate the once-weekly sessions at the campus' Human Sciences and Services building, sometimes working together or in small teams. Emily Axelson, Tonia Riske, Brenna Lindsay, Craig Begalle and Dana Kipp - all second-year graduate students, participated in the group-based program for credit.

"It was a nice summer format," Riske said. "It didn't require a lot of formality or time and effort from our clients who came."

Clinic supervisors Judy Haley and Donna Schemm, both faculty members in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, also helped facilitate the sessions.

"Communication is such an important aspect to our lives," Schemm said. "And when someone can't communicate in the way that they could before it impacts what they're able to participate in."

Coffee, music, healing

Patients spent one hour each week in formal group therapy sessions, where teams of students worked with small groups of patients on rehabilitating specific areas of communication, such as reading cooking recipes, using the telephone or answering simple questions.

Following the hour-long therapy sessions the program took a turn for the informal. At the coffee shop, which had been set up in the same building, patients were prompted to carry on half-hour long conversations on a variety of topics.

"I liked the coffee shop aspect because a lot of times people with aphasia isolate themselves," Lindsay said. "With the coffee shop, it made them more comfortable."

Haley and Schemm said the sessions could include a number of activities. Patients played the piano, listened to music or discussed different topics such as cars, vacations or pets.

But the uniquely relaxed setting wasn't the most powerful aspect of the program, said some of the students. Instead, students pointed to the healthy dose of group discussion throughout the project as one of the most comforting aspects.

"It wasn't a support group format at all," Axelson said, "but it kind of ended up being that way. They all have similar experiences."

The taste of success

The four-week program was the first at Eau Claire to rely so heavily on group discussions instead of one-on-one therapy to treat aphasia.

The new approach seemed to be a hit. Both Haley and Schemm said the program was so successful that the university may decide to continue with group-based therapy formats in the future.

"This was so well received," Schemm said, "that most of the people in the group wanted to continue it in some form.

"I think by the last day, if we hadn't had to leave, they would have just stayed and talked in the hallway," she added. "And they did often times (stay) for a half hour afterwards."

Haley said the university will continue to hold more individualized therapy sessions during the fall semester, but more group work will be mingled in. The coffee shop will remain a staple component of therapy sessions this fall, too, Haley said.

Keepin' it in the family

The coffee shop was a hit with more than just the patients. A trio of women whose spouses attended the weekly therapy sessions also frequented the shop and established their own ad hoc therapy sessions with one another over coffee.

"They were able to share with each other things that helped, things that were more difficult and just have a time that they could sit and chat," Haley said of the spouses' participation in the program.

Riske said that "a lot of the normal family communication breaks down" when a spouse has aphasia, but Begalle said the spouses opened up to one another during the program, and that he felt the therapy sessions may have put the families "on the right path" toward healing.

Impressions left on students

Schemm said she saw multiple personal and professional changes in the students during the program.

"I saw that all of them made very nice progress in taking data during the groups and really reinforcing each client's responses - which was a target," she said, adding that she also saw growth in the students' teamwork and ability to respond to patients' needs.

Students said they too saw benefits from participating in the program this summer.

"I think it just kind of opened my eyes to realize how each patient is different," Begalle said. "Each one has their own problems, wants, strengths, weaknesses. You're not going to see the same type of client twice."

"This program in particular was the first time that I really saw how rewarding doing therapy could be just because so often it takes clients so long to see progress," Kipp said. "To have them come to therapy and really seem to enjoy coming was just so much more rewarding."

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