Please Take Time To Talk To The Heart And Stroke Foundation

Please share your voice, your insights and your experience with us as we build better ways to help you – and other Canadians who will experience heart disease or stroke – to reach the best recovery possible.

You are invited to attend one of a series of focus groups being organized across Canada for stroke survivors, people living with heart disease, and family members and friends who provide them support.

There are three ways that we’d welcome your input:

• You can join us in person. We are planning in-person focus groups in communities across the country (with some opportunity for both French and English participation). Please watch this page for updates as we confirm these locations.
• You can join us by phone. We will be holding two national teleconference focus groups. You can join from anywhere in the country, however these two teleconferences will be in English only. See below for dates and times.
• You can provide your thoughts and feedback online. See below for links to surveys in English and French.

Register your interest to participate in a 1½ hour focus group by:

• Emailing focusgroupsHSF@rogers.com
• OR calling 1-866-211-0569.

Let us know how you would like to take part – in person, by phone or online. You will receive a confirmation by email or phone, along with the specifics on location, phone number and/or the survey link.

Click here to go to this page online

Life Long Stroke Recovery

Life Long Stroke Recovery

When you watch this video, it will change your beliefs about how stroke survivors CAN recover.

RAPPORT (the know, like and trust factor) and STIMULABILITY appear to be key, along with passionate REPETITION framed with a SIMPLE appropriate therapy application, as part of daily lives.

Credit: Mark Ittleman author of "The Teaching of Talking"

Mark's application is for speech. However, I have noted that during the past thirteen years of my recovery, application of this strategy in other therapies has also proven successful.

Mark's book "The Teaching of Talking

PEI Community Focus Group hosted by Heart and Stroke

The Heart and Stroke Foundation is hosting a Community Focus Group on June 12, 2015 as per the attached poster. Please try to attend if possible. This is a huge step in the right direction and they need our input to help identify the ways to improve supports and resources that can help you better manage your health (recovery) 

Some Canadian stroke patients left to pay own physiotherapy bills

Photo unavailable due to publication policies

Unfortunately, with the erroneous acceptance of the idea that stroke recovery can only last eighteen to twenty four months, the provision of long term treatment becomes a very real challenge for long term stroke recovery survivors.

Education and awareness have been badly lacking in this area and it needs to be given a much larger voice.


Maybe a book like "The Brain That Changes Itself" by Canadian author Norman Doidge might be a great place to start.


Click Here to see the entire article. (including the photo)

Surprised by researcher's remarks in news article about a new stroke neuroprotectant drug being tested

Andy Tasker photo credit - CBC

Here is what Andy actually said... Tasker said this phase three trial is also a proud moment for the team at UPEI.

"To know that the part we played was critical in the development of this drug, to demonstrate that fundamental research really can lead to tangible benefits that benefit people in the real world in real time, and also frankly to show that a small university way out in the edges of the country can actually contribute to something which has the enormous potential to be a major impact worldwide," he said.


Congratulations Andy!


Andy and his team is proving that even if others may think of us as limited in what we can do, it is only an attitude and does not limit us from what we are truly capable of accomplishing.

If there ever were barriers because of location, those barriers either no longer exist or have been vastly reduced given the communication tools we have today.

As, Jeff Jarvis notes in his book " Geeks Bearing Gifts".

Although it is written for the news and media industry, it contains much valuable content for all of us in the stroke community.

Be careful of the attitude you share.

Click here to read the entire article.

PEI Stroke Care Model "Caregiver Handbook"

Did you know that over 300 strokes occur on Prince Edward Island every year?

Are you a family member, caregiver or friend of a stroke survivor on Prince Edward Island.

Here is a valuable information resource for Prince Edward Islanders seeking information about recovering from stroke on Prince Edward Island.

PEI Stroke Care Model  "Caregiver Handbook"

Click Here to open the "Caregiver Handbook" PDF

and Heart & Stroke's "Let's Talk About Stroke" booklet

Click Here to open the "Let's Talk About Stroke" PDF

Both of the above PDF's can be downloaded to your computer's hard drive and/or printed out on your printer as handy reference material.

Please share the link to this post with others who may need this information.

THANKS

Gary
Stroke survivor since 2002

Our New Approach To Communication Meets The Challenge!!!

Nicole Caron

A guest post by:  Nicole Caron, the Social Media Manager at Voiceitt.

Voiceitt is an Israeli-based technology startup whose mission is to create innovative solutions that helps aid the lives of people with disabilities. The fundamental goal of VoiceItt is to foster independence and social inclusion for the disabled and improve their quality of life. Voiceitt is currently developing Talkitt, an innovative speech technology which is able to recognize unintelligible language and translate it into understandable speech. Ultimately, Talkitt is giving individuals with speech impairments their voice back! 

Until now, the approach taken by developers of assistive technology for people with speech disabilities has completely bypassed voice, opting to use other modes of communication including communication boards that replace speech with symbols and images, head-tracking, eye-tracking, and switches. There are no products on the market today that allow people with speech disabilities to communicate using the most natural means, their voice. This is the gap Talkitt is trying to fill. 

TalkItt is a step forward for better social inclusion for people that suffer from motor, speech, and language disorders; allowing users to freely express themselves and be understood with speed and ease. This innovative product is based on personalized speech recognition technology, which recognizes the user's speech and translates it into understandable language that is displayed on and vocalized by the user's device. TalkItt works on mobile and wearable devices, so it is portable and easy to use and without the stigma attached to clunky, obtrusive existing solutions (AAC). People with speech disabilities will be able to speak, and have TalkItt translate for them with minimal delay. The solution can be integrated to make phone calls, use social media, and activate smart phones and assistive devices, facilitating communication and control on all levels.

We have a basic pilot, however, Talkitt is currently in its developmental stage. Listed below are links to our company website and videos of individuals using Talkitt. We are collecting funds in order to further its production. In our efforts to raise money, we have launched an indiegogo crowdfunding campaign (link provided below) and have applied to various grants. We plan on having a basic Talkitt product out within 6-8 months.

The company video: https://vimeo.com/98136263

Different examples of usage: https://vimeo.com/100643482

Orit (CP) Pilot: https://vimeo.com/98433436

Jack (ALS) Pilot: https://vimeo.com/100689671

Indiegogo Crowdfunding Campaign: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/talkitt-this-is-my-voice