ACQ Vol 10 No 1 2008

R eview of T he A ustralian A phasia G uide

Colin F. Cussen

I had to learn to drive again – or, at least, go through training with RACQ. I don’t drive everywhere. I had got used to being chauffeured! But also, realistically, I felt very unsure about driving. It’s only now after 8 months that I have a measure of confidence in driving. As a person who has gone through these experiences I found The Australian Aphasia Guide exceptionally informative, interesting and helpful.

The Australian aphasia guide , by Angela Berens together with Georgi Laney, Tanya Rose and Tami Howe; St Lucia, Qld: Australian Aphasia Association Inc.; 144 pages, $20. Available from the Australian Aphasia Association Inc. I was asked to do this review last week! I’ve been worrying about it ever since. A bit like Angela who “won this challenge”, as noted in beginning this work. I think that Angela’s preface spells out the reasons for the book – “to promote aphasia at every chance I have and to help people like me who are living with aphasia” (p. 1). Too often in life I have met many people who wonder why someone hasn’t done something to solve a problem. When I have suggested that they might put their hand to the plough and get the solution moving, they shy clear with many and various reasons. But then, I have often found that if I begin to get things moving, I have had many respond by offering their assistance. Thus the work was still done – only more circuitously! That then gives others heart to see to solving problems. This might seem to be in a perfect world – because it sometimes doesn’t happen! So, we must express our thanks to Angela for initiating and, with the assistance of many others, getting it off the ground. That thanks comes from me also as a person who needed help as well. On 30 November 2005 – just 20 months ago – I had a massive stroke. I had had a shower and just dried myself as I was preparing to go to All Saints’ Church, Wickham Tce in Brisbane to say the midday mass for the Feast of St Andrew. You see, I am a priest – Anglican brand – and had retired in April 2001. Because of my good health I was of use in parishes. I had only been in hospital twice – the last time was 27 years before! In my retirement my wife and I had moved into a town­ house in Stanley Tce, Toowong. On 29 June we eventually moved into a house in Taringa because of my wife’s problems of walking up and down the staircase in the townhouse. Five months after that shift I was stricken by a stroke and spent the next 12 weeks in St Andrew’s Hospital. When I came out of hospital there was much intervention on the medical side to see that I was in a safe environment. I knew that no way in the world would I have been able to go back to a three-story townhouse. So, what we had done for my wife was actually done for me! The whole cost of the hospitalisation plus the continuing rehabilitation after hospital were fully paid for (apart from $250) by my health insurance. For years I couldn’t see the benefit paying large sums of money for private insurance. Now I knew why! So began many more months of continuing rehabilitation. My wife had been given time off from her teaching position from the end of November till mid-July 2006. It was fully paid leave which she had accumulated over many years. The benefit of being honest paid off! I joined the University of Queensland’s continuing research work, which made it possible to continue to improve my memory. I have continued twice weekly going to the Wesley Hospital swimming pool for hydrotherapy. Very tiring but well worth­ while. Every day sees improvement in my well-being.

Colin Cussen with his wife The book is divided into 2 major divisions: the book itself has 8 chapters; and the service directory which is organised under 6 headings. Then there are 4 pages of symbols of common needs. The important thing about this book is that it is colour-coded . That is a great teaching method. Not only is the book colour-coded, but each chapter in itself is also colour-coded. In the index, the page references for the chapters are numbered and colour-coded. One doesn’t have to look for the chapters by numbers – you’ll find them by their colours: cyan, orange, dark green, blue, purple, light green, etc. What is aphasia? If I had been asked on 30 November, 2005, I would have pleaded ignorance! Now it is a different story. I have much fun when people ask me what organisations I belong to or what I’m doing at UQ. ‘Oh, I belong to an aphasiac group.’ A what ?!!! So you can see there is still much work to do to educate people about aphasia. This book has made a valuable start on this work. In case you the reader of this article don’t know what aphasia is, here it is: “Aphasia is a language difficulty caused by injury to the brain. It affects communication: to understand words, to speak, to read, to spell, to write, to gesture and to use numbers” (p. 12). As we are well aware, this may affect everyday communication, relationships and everyday living (p. 14). Aphasia affects different people in different ways. I know that – I had twelve weeks in hospital learning to communicate and walk again! But there is one consolation which will give the reader much hope – “Aphasia does not affect intelligence” (p. 14).

31

ACQ uiring knowledge in speech , language and hearing , Volume 10, Number 1 2008