Treatment and Activities

Adler Aphasia Center, a unique, long-term approach

The Adler Aphasia Center at HAC provides unique long-term treatment, rehabilitation and community-based services for individuals with chronic aphasia.

The Center's goal is to provide therapeutic treatment, along with supplemental activities for clients and their families, in order to improve their communication skills, and to enhance their quality of life.

The Center's clinical treatment model is based on the "social approach to aphasia intervention" - which both incorporates and complements the traditional medical approach. This model emphasizes the operation of various group activities, and promotes alternative tools for effective communication and social interaction. The Center focuses on the individual's different spheres of functional communication including the interpersonal, familial, and communal.

The Center’s main goal is to provide individuals with aphasia with the confidence and experience to successfully engage in effective interactions with their partners, as well as in larger family and social settings. The Center constitutes an important component of the clinical training experience for students in the Department of Communication Disorders at Hadassah Academic College.

Activities for people with aphasia include:

• Individual speech and communication treatments.
• Personal adaptation of assistive communication devices.
• Communication and conversation groups.
• Activity workshops including photography, art, music, and movement – to focus on the development of non-verbal tools of expression.
• Cooking therapy – as a format in which to strengthen communication.
• Social activities including day trips, holiday celebrations, and lectures.

Services for family and caregivers:

• Training in techniques to facilitate improved communications.
• Guidance and support groups for partners.
• Group activities in the community.
• Public education about aphasia and national outreach.
• Clinical training for students in HAC's Department of Communication Disorders.
• Training sessions for medical and nursing students.
• Lectures and workshops for professionals in rehabilitation centers and nursing homes.
• Workshops for speech and language pathologists.
• Leading national advocacy efforts to raise public awareness about aphasia throughout Israel.

The center is an important part of the clinical professional experience and training of the students in the Department of Communication Disorders at Hadassah Academic College.