Rancho Intensive Aphasia Program

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

The Rancho Intensive Aphasia Program (RIAP) is an intensive outpatient seven-week therapy program for people living with aphasia, an acquired language disorder. RIAP is led by licensed speech-language pathologists in the communication disorders department at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center. It is organized by cohort, with groups of four to eight English and Spanish speaking patients. Program participants are residents of Los Angeles County and represent the diversity of the region. The program includes education as well as individual and group therapy and community reintegration activities. The program entails a patient and family workshop to provide education about aphasia types and symptoms, and to train participants in tools to facilitate communication. Individual and group therapy concentrates on improving communication in functional daily living situations for patients. Following a Life Participation Approach to Aphasia (Duchan 2001), functional communication and community reintegration is the foundation of the program. In addition to traditional therapy tasks, special programming includes community outings and meetings, and an ongoing patient photography project, which culminates in a photography exhibit for the hospital community. Established in 2014, there have been 45 participants in the program to date. Participants have shown positive gains in subjective and objective outcome measures. In addition, patients and families anecdotally report increased participation in conversations and meaningful activities in their daily lives.