Declare Aphasia Awareness Month

Senate Resolution No. 2563 BY: Senator PARKER MEMORIALIZING Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to proclaim June 2017, as Aphasia Awareness Month in the State of New York WHEREAS, It is the custom of this Legislative Body to recognize official months that are set aside to increase awareness of serious issues that affect the lives of citizens of New York State; and WHEREAS, Attendant to such concern, and fully in accord with its long-standing traditions, this Legislative Body is justly proud to memorialize Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to proclaim June 2017, as Aphasia Awareness Month in the State of New York, in conjunction with National Aphasia Awareness Month; and WHEREAS, Aphasia is an impairment of language affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write; it is always due to injury to the brain, most commonly from a stroke, particularly in older individuals; brain injuries resulting in aphasia may also arise from head trauma, brain tumors, or infections; and WHEREAS, A spectrum disorder, Aphasia can be so severe as to make communication with an individual almost impossible, or it can be very mild; it may affect mainly a single aspect of language use, such as the ability to retrieve the names of objects, the ability to put words together into sentences, or the ability to read; and WHEREAS, More commonly in Aphasia, however, multiple aspects of communication are impaired, while some channels remain accessible for a limited exchange of information; it is the job of the professional to determine the amount of function available in each of the channels for the comprehension of language, and to assess the possibility that treatment might enhance the use of the channels that are available; and WHEREAS, Over a century of experience with the study of Aphasia it has become evident that particular components of language may be particularly damaged in some individuals; we have also learned to recognize different types or patterns of Aphasia which correspond to the location of the brain injury in the individual case; and WHEREAS, Global Aphasia is the most severe form of Aphasia, and is applied to individuals who can produce few recognizable words and understand little or no spoken language; persons with Global Aphasia can neither read nor write, and it may often be seen immediately after having suffered from a stroke; with greater brain damage, severe and lasting disability may result; and WHEREAS, Broca's Aphasia, also referred to as non-fluent Aphasia, is a form of Aphasia in which speech output is severely reduced and limited mainly to short utterances of less than four words; vocabulary access is limited and the formation of sounds by persons with Broca's Aphasia is often laborious and clumsy; Broca's Aphasia is often referred to as a non-fluent Aphasia because of the halting and effortful quality of speech; and WHEREAS, Mixed non-fluent Aphasia is applied to individuals who have sparse and effortful speech, resembling severe Broca's Aphasia; however, unlike persons with Broca's Aphasia, they remain limited in their comprehension of speech and do not read or write beyond an elementary level; and WHEREAS, In Wernicke's Aphasia, or fluent Aphasia, the ability to grasp the meaning of spoken words is chiefly impaired, while the ease of producing connected speech is not much affected; reading and writing are often severely impaired; and WHEREAS, Anomic Aphasia is applied to persons who are left with a persistent inability to supply the words for the very things they want to talk about, particularly the significant nouns and verbs; subsequently, speech, while fluent in grammatical form and output, is full of vague circumlocutions and expressions of frustration; and WHEREAS, In addition to the foregoing syndromes that are seen repeatedly by speech clinicians, there are many other possible combinations of deficits that do not exactly fit into these aforementioned categories; and WHEREAS, Furthermore, some of the components of a Complex Aphasia Syndrome may also occur in isolation; this may also be the case for disorders of reading (alexia) or disorders affecting both reading and writing (alexia and agraphia), following a stroke; severe impairments of calculation often accompany Aphasia, yet in some instances patients retain excellent calculation in spite of the loss of language; and WHEREAS, It is imperative that there be greater public awareness of this serious health issue, and more must be done to increase activity at the local, State and National levels; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to memorialize Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to proclaim June 2017, as Aphasia Awareness Month in the State of New York, in conjunction with National Aphasia Awareness Month; and be it further RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be transmitted to The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor of the State of New York.