Person-centred communication with and care for those living with dementia is at the heart of a free public lecture next week.<\/p>\n
Taking place virtually Tuesday, May 31 from 11 a.m. to noon, \u201cPreserving Personhood When Communicating With Persons Living With Dementia\u201d will be presented online by guest speaker Professor J.B. Orange of Western University as part of Brock University\u2019s Department of Applied Linguistics (DALS) Speaker Series.<\/p>\n
Associate Professor and DALS Chair Lynn Dempsey says that issues related to communication touch everyone\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cProf. Orange\u2019s talk on evidence-informed, person-centred communication strategies will be a valuable learning experience for our own students interested in topics related to communication health, for others in the Brock community interested in lifespan development and for professionals and other members of the public who interact with those living with dementia,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The event marks the end of Speech and Hearing Month, which is promoted by Speech & Audiology Canada (SAC), the national association that represents Speech-Language Pathologists, Audiologists and Communication Health Assistants and advocates for the needs of people with communication disorders.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach year, SAC dedicates the month of May to raising awareness about the importance of communication health, a topic very much of interest to us in DALS,\u201d says Dempsey. \u201cApplied linguistics focuses on, among other things, the application of linguistic knowledge to communication disorders, so we are dedicating the spring event in our Speaker Series to communication health.\u201d<\/p>\n