Episode #97: Aphasia Is a Family Thing: A Conversation with Marie-Christine Hallé

Interviewer info

Lyssa Rome is a speech-language pathologist in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is on staff at the Aphasia Center of California, where she facilitates groups for people with aphasia and their care partners. She owns an LPAA-focused private practice and specializes in working with people with aphasia, dysarthria, and other neurogenic communication impairments. She has worked in acute hospital, skilled nursing, and continuum of care settings. Prior to becoming an SLP, Lyssa was a public radio journalist, editor, and podcast producer.

In this episode, Lyssa Rome interviews Marie-Christine Hallé about her work on including significant others in aphasia rehabilitation, communication partner training, and knowledge translation.

 

Gap Areas

This episode focuses on Gap Area #4, markedly insufficient training and education of family or carers regarding aphasia and communication strategies; and Gap Area #9, lack of services specifically for family members of people with aphasia across the continuum of care.

 

Guest info

 

Dr. Hallé is a lecturer at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières and the coordinator of SAPPA, a service for significant others of people with aphasia in Quebec Province, Canada. She completed a PhD in speech language pathology at University of Montreal, and a postdoctoral fellowship in knowledge translation at McGill University. Her work aims to support the inclusion of significant others in aphasia rehabilitation, as well as communication partner training. To promote the uptake of these best practices, she studies professional competency development among speech language pathology students with respect to evidence-based practice and counseling, as well as professional practice changes among clinicians. She is a recipient of the 2022 Tavistock Trust for Aphasia Distinguished Scholar Award.

 

Listener Take-aways

In today’s episode you will:

• Learn about changes in family relationships due to post-stroke aphasia.
• Understand how speech-language pathologists can support significant others of those with aphasia across the continuum of care.
• Identify barriers and facilitators to implementing communication partner training.

Edited show notes

Lyssa Rome

Welcome to the Aphasia Access Aphasia Conversations Podcast. I'm Lyssa Rome. I'm a speech language pathologist on staff at the Aphasia Center of California, and I see clients with aphasia and other neurogenic communication impairments in my LPAA-focused private practice.

I'm also a member of the Aphasia Access Podcast Working Group. Aphasia Access strives to provide members with information, inspiration, and ideas that support their aphasia care through a variety of educational materials and resources.

 

I'm today's host for an episode that will feature Dr. Marie-Christine Hallé, who was selected as a 2022 Tavistock Trust for Aphasia Distinguished Scholar, USA and Canada. In this episode, we'll be discussing Dr. Hallé’s research on significant others’ experiences of post-stroke aphasia, communication partner training, and knowledge translation.

 

Dr. Hallé is a lecturer at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières and the coordinator of SAPPA, a service for significant others of people with aphasia in Quebec Province, Canada. She completed a PhD in speech language pathology at University of Montreal, and a postdoctoral fellowship in knowledge translation at McGill University. Her work aims to support the inclusion of significant others in aphasia rehabilitation, as well as communication partner training. To promote the uptake of these best practices, she studies professional competency development among speech language pathology students with respect to evidence-based practice and counseling, as well as professional practice changes among clinicians. Marie-Christine Hallé, welcome to the Aphasia Access podcast. It's great to have you here.

 

Marie-Christine Hallé 

Thank you.

 

Lyssa Rome 

I wanted to start, as we often do, with asking you about whether you've had any “aha” moments—significant experiences that were critical in your development as a speech language pathologist?

 

M