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Photographic exhibit worth a 1,000 words

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John Harnett, contributing artist, pictured at the opening of the Accessing The Arts photography exhibition at St Joseph’s Hospital in Ennis. Photograph by Declan Monaghan

A group of budding photographers launched their first exhibition in St Joseph’s Hospital recently. However, this is no ordinary exhibition, with all of the participants part of an innovative project at St Joseph’s, helping people with communication difficulties following a stroke.

 

 

John Harnett, contributing artist, pictured at the opening of the Accessing The Arts photography exhibition at St Joseph’s Hospital in Ennis. Photograph by Declan Monaghan

A group of budding photographers launched their first exhibition in St Joseph’s Hospital recently. However, this is no ordinary exhibition, with all of the participants part of an innovative project at St Joseph’s, helping people with communication difficulties following a stroke.
Sarah Curran, senior speech and language therapist at the Willow Unit in St Joseph’s explained the exhibition is part of an Accessing the Arts project for people with aphasia, an acquired language disorder, which results in the loss or ability to produce and/or comprehend language of often as a result of a stroke. The Accessing the Arts programme was introduced to Clare in 2010 by Sarah and Emer Ni Mhaoileoin, senior speech and language therapists. 
“Depending on the area damaged and the extent of the damage, people will have varying abilities in language comprehension and production. Aphasia does not mean any loss of intelligence. As a result of their communication difficulties, many of these patients findtheir role in society has changed, often resulting in isolation and the opportunity to learn new skills and indeed to access the arts, is minimal,” said Sarah.
“The speech and language therapy (SLT) department run communication groups on a regular basis and the aims of these groups focus on improving functional communication while increasing social interaction. Accessing the Arts was established to extend the current service by implementing a course, which differs from other communication groups in that the goals go beyond SLT rehabilitation,” she said.
The speech and language therapist has been working in Clare for the past number of years and was previously based in St James Hospital in Dublin.
It was while in St James she had the opportunity to become involved in a European project called “Laph-Learning and Aphasia” funded by Leargas and the Gruntdvig 2 European programme.
“Six countries were involved in total. five represented specialised aphasia centres in Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland. Ireland was the only country not to represent a specialised centre. In Europe specialised centres for people post-stroke are the norm and life-long learning goals for clients with chronic aphasia are seen as standard intervention.
“As a team we were determined to replicate the great work we witnessed in Europe in these specialised centres and the programme Accessing the Arts was established. When I joined the speech and language therapy department in County Clare in 2010.. I was determined to roll out the effective project for my clients and to date four successful programmes have been completed,” she said. 
As part of the project, a series of groups, six weeks in length, were implemented each focusing on a specific area in the arts.
“A series of topics have been implemented each focusing on a specific area in the arts, for example sport, music and gardening. Twelve clients are invited with six to eight usually in attendance. Myself and two speech and language therapy students from the University of Limerick Patricia Donnelly and Jackie Gallagher, facilitated this group that focused on digital photography and resulted in a wonderful exhibition.
“Emphasis is placed on ensuring participants have a sense of ownership of the group. To achieve this, the participants use aphasia-friendly materials to identify the topics they wish to explore,” she said.
The aims of the project are to assist participants learn a new skill; promote positive living with aphasia; develop a sense of citizenship and patient advocacy.
“The groups are multi-dimensional with both theory and practical elements. We have planted a garden while learning about specific gardening skills; we have also attended a concert when learning about music. This group used the medium of digital photography to learn about the workings and use of a digital camera and how to capture the right moment for a creative picture.
“We also had a guest speaker, Dr Nora Donnelly, discussing aspects of photography and capturing still-life pictures. Digital photography is a new skill for most of our participants. Assignments were set each week and participants were encouraged to explore their own individual areas of interest. Each participant selected their favorite photographs to include in the exhibition. The exhibition opened on June 27 with a ceremony of friends, family and press, the afternoon was a great success,” she said.
Looking to the future, she explained that outcome measurements will be used post group via aphasia-friendly questionnaires to measure the effectiveness of the group. Carers’ questionnaires will also be used to measure the opinions of the series of groups that have been introduced by the SLT department.
“Informally, feedback has been very positive from clients and family with 100% of participants finding the group to be of value and enjoyed the social slant of Accessing the Arts and as a result, they are continuing and wanting to attend subsequent groups,” she said.
Plans are now afoot for future courses, continuing the focus on life-long learning and positive living with aphasia.
“The participants identified a number of areas of interest including history, cooking and painting, while those who wish to keep up their photography skills will be encouraged and given the opportunity to do so. It would be of great benefit to our patients with chronic aphasia to have similar six-week courses three times a year,” she said.
Also, a social support group/chatter group is to be set up for people with aphasia and their families. The group will allow participants to meet other people in similar position for a chat and support in a relaxed social environment. A speech and language therapist will be involved initially to offer any assistance and support.

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