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Q. What is aphasia?
A. An impairment in the ability to communicate as a result of brain injury. Because communication is central to our interactions with others, aphasia has a broad impact. It affects social, vocational and emotional aspects of an individual's life as well as that of his or her loved ones.
Q. What is InteRACT?
A. InteRACT is the only adult aphasia treatment program in North America that offers clients four weeks of intensive training with two important features:
1) clients must participate with a communication partner and
2) live in residence in the same building where the program is held. InteRACT participants have benefited from this unique approach every time.
Q. What makes InteRACT different from other aphasia treatment programs?
A. InteRACT is intensive, offering four weeks of training, five days per week. Clients participate with a communication partner. AND it's residential, meaning clients and their communication partners live in the same building where the program is held.
Q. What is the program like? What are the program elements?
A. InteRACT is a four-week summer residential treatment term providing therapy five days a week. The schedule includes:
· 4 hours of daily individual speech therapy and computer activities
· 1 hour daily group speech therapy
In addition, the program includes:
· off-site community integration activities
· individual and group therapeutic recreation
· partner education, and
· group physio exercise sessions
Q. Who leads the course?
A. InteRACT is staffed by an experienced team of health professionals, including speech-language pathologists, communicative disorder assistants, recreation therapists and physiotherapists.
Q. Who is a candidate for the program?
A. InteRACT clients are adults with all types of aphasia, at all levels of impairment, at every age. Adults with chronic aphasia - many years post onset - can benefit from intensive treatment. Individuals should be:
· medically stable,
· cognitively and physically able to endure the intense nature of the program,
· able to attend with a designated communication partner (caregiver, spouse, family member or friend who are involved in the daily life of the person with aphasia), and
· able to identify specific and realistic goals for participation in the program
Q. When do we need to register?
A. We can accommodate up to six clients in each of two summer sessions. Some sessions we've run with fewer, some with more. We like to have our sessions booked by February or March of each year, and are able to accommodate later registrations if spots are still available.
Q. How do you know InteRACT works?
A. Our clients demonstrate measurable gains in a variety of areas. They complete the program with improved communication ability relative to their specific communication challenges. Most importantly, the leave us with renewed confidence. We follow up with our clients by telephone and email at regular intervals to obtain feedback and follow their results. We send out questionnaires which we ask them to complete to obtain their feedback.
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Q. What do you mean by "residential" program? What is the residence?
A. Living in residence provides participants and their partners the opportunity to live and learn from others with similar challenges. InteRACT is located in Fenwick Place, a 33-story student residence building located about 15 minutes from the main Dalhousie University Campus in Halifax. Participants stay in furnished apartments in Fenwick Place with a grocery store, drug store, restaurant, pizza parlor, coffee shop and video store all within a block. Fenwick Place is located in a quiet, mostly residential neighborhood.
Q. Do you have to stay in residence - we have friends in Halifax we could stay with to reduce the cost?
A. One of the key features that contributes to the success our clients achieve is the living in residence. Residential living allows clients to live and learn with others facing similar challenges. We do not believe that participants get the full benefit of the program if they do not live in residence. Additionally, many of our clients initially find the program to be quite tiring. Therefore, it's been nice for those who do get tired to simply go up to their room for a rest during breaks.
Q. Where is Nova Scotia? Isn't it hard to get to?
A. Nova Scotia is on the east coast of Canada. There are a number of direct flights to our capital city, Halifax each day. It is about two hours flying from Toronto, under two hours from New York City, and just over an hour from Boston. It's not that far away!
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Q. What does it cost?
A. InteRACT is a private treatment program which costs $16,500 for Canadians and $19,000 for out-of country* clients (Canadian dollars).
Q. What is included in the cost?
A. Cost covers all clinical intervention, accommodations, lunch and dinner Monday to Friday, as well as therapeutic recreation, outings and activities for client and partner.
Q. Is it covered by medical insurance?
A. Private insurance policies cover varying amounts of outpatient speech language treatment. We recommend that individuals check with their insurance company, and we are able to provide necessary documentation that they may require for reimbursement.
Q. How can I refer my clients - it seems expensive?
A. Don't let cost deter you from sharing or considering this information. Once they hear about InteRACT, clients often find ways to raise the necessary funds whether it's private insurance covering varying amounts of outpatient speech language treatment, support from funding agencies, community groups or benevolent organizations, or families pooling their resources.
Q. Do you have any bursaries to help someone offset the cost of the program?
A. We have in the past. Individuals should contact us directly to find out if we have any bursaries available for a particular program.
Q. Could someone come for just two weeks, instead of four?
A. The intensive nature of the program contributes to its success. We feel that four weeks is the minimum amount of time to achieve objectives. We have observed that the first two weeks provide the foundation for learning skills and strategies and in the second two weeks individuals are able to more easily apply and practice these skills.
Q. Are you a for-profit or non-profit organization?
A. We are a non-profit.
Q. How are you funded?
A. Dalhousie University helps fund InteRACT. We are always on the lookout for outside funding to help offset costs and to potentially set up bursaries.
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