DENTON, Texas — In late March, beloved actor Bruce Willis announced he would be stepping away from a decades-long career in acting after being diagnosed with aphasia.
The announcement sparked a national conversation about what aphasia is and what causes it. In layman's terms, aphasia is a condition that robs you of the ability to communicate. According to the Mayo Clinic, it can affect your ability to speak, write and understand language, both verbal and written.
Now, a group of researchers at the University of North Texas (UNT) is working to expand support for North Texas residents living with aphasia and their families, friends and care partners, the university announced Tuesday.
According to the UNT researchers, approximately 27,000 people in the North Texas region and at least 2 million people in the U.S. are diagnosed with aphasia.
UNT said the North Texas region sees an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 hospital discharges of aphasia per year caused by a variety of factors, including stroke — the most common cause — trauma and other brain injuries, and in rare cases, degenerative neurocognitive disorders or a tumor in the brain.
“Of the estimated thousands of people currently living with aphasia in North Texas, fewer than 200 are currently accessing the post-discharge supports and services that may be available to them,” said Gloria Olness, an associate professor in the College of Health and Public Service. “Where do they go? We are laying the foundation for establishing The Aphasia Collaborative (TAC), a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary and interpersonal network to provide help.”
According to UNT officials, The Aphasia Collaborative will "support and connect people living with aphasia, their family members and friends, their communities, community leaders, health care leaders, and transdisciplinary health care service providers and hospitals."
“The true experts about aphasia are the people living with aphasia, and we do not yet hear their voice,” Olness said. “Friends just stop coming. Family members don’t know how to communicate with this person that they love. It’s really this connection with family and friends that is the most important thing that is lost, but it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Olness is working on the project with a group of research speech-language pathologists and with associate professor Liam O’Neill, who is analyzing insurance and discharge data. The research is funded by the Josephine Simonson Aphasia Trust Fund at the Southwestern Medical Foundation.
For more information about aphasia and what causes it, click here.