TALK Surrey CIO

Supporting people with aphasia after stroke

TALK received the

Queen's Award
for Voluntary Service
in recognition of the outstanding
contribution made by volunteers

TALK Surrey CIO working relationship with speech and language therapists

Overview

TALK Surrey CIO is a small Surrey based charity supporting people withaphasia following a stroke. We have been operating for over 22 years, and our aim is to give our stroke members the chance to practise all forms of communication. We have 5 groups (Ashford, Guildford x 2, Knaphill and Walton) which are run in a friendly and social environment, encouraging our members to be independent. Our ongoing relationship with speech and language therapists helps us to achieve our aim.

Referrals

95% of our stroke members are referred via a speech and language therapist. TALK Surrey is in close working contact with several Surrey-based hospitals, receiving a high volume of referral forms. Thereferral form received from the speech and language therapist is very detailed regarding the level and type ofaphasia their patient has, as well as advice and strategies on how to best support this recoverer. This really helps us understand the needs of our stroke members, which will benefit them getting the most out of our sessions. The Operations Manager will keep the referring speech and language therapist informed of any changes to the stroke member's condition. Speech and language therapists are welcome to visit one of our groups before referring their patient or at any other time.

* Please note, only a member of staff and the group leader has access to referrals, and each stroke member has given their consent to this.

Download Referral Form

Training

At our groups, we offer one to one support to our stroke members. This is done via volunteer, so at each session a stroke member has a designated volunteer to work with. Our volunteers are not medical professionals; however, full training is given. Onboarding training is set up to capture our new volunteers, and ongoing refresher training is also in place, both delivered by speech and language therapists. In addition, we are working very closely with a specialist speech and language therapist, and are in the early stages of designing a tailor-made training package for all volunteers at TALK Surrey.

Appraisals

Due to the nature of our charity, it is extremely important that our activities, themes, topics, worksheets and conversational skills are allaphasia friendly. To help us achieve this, we are assessed and appraised annually by speech and language therapists. This also ensures we are keeping up to date with any new findings following case studies. We can then implement any findings based on the current approach and advice given by the speech and language therapists.