Minnesota Connect Aphasia Now (MnCAN)

The Issue

One in 250 people in Minnesota have aphasia. Yet many don't even know what it is.  Aphasia affects the ability to speak, read, write, and understand what others are saying.   It is usually caused by stroke or brain injury.  It does not affect intelligence.   There is also a progressive form of aphasia called Primary Progressive Aphasia which is a progressive neurological condition.                                     

The Effect

The lack of ability to communicate can cause devastating isolation.

Can you imagine losing the ability to speak, read, write, or understand what people are saying to you?  What would it be like if you couldn't order a hamburger or answer the phone?

"It’s like… not knowing what stuff is in your head. That’s the only thing I can say. It’s up there, but you can’t get it out."

The Mission

Help create the opportunity for connection and communication in a safe, supportive place.   A place where "you are not alone -- a place where you see that life can get better, that you can improve".      

Over 120 persons with aphasia and their care partners are connected through MnCAN to support, education, and communication practice through twelve aphasia conversation groups located in the Twin Cities and in outstate MN.  And there are many more that could benefit from access to MnCAN's programs.

HELP CONNECT PEOPLE WITH APHASIA TO HOPE FRIENDSHIP AND COMMUNICATION   

Aphasia from Tiffany’s Perspective

Our program participants and their care partners bravely share their journeys with aphasia and MnCAN’s impact on their lives. Tiffany Alston talks about the frustrations of living with aphasia, her goals for the future and how MnCAN supports her journey.  

What You Can Help Accomplish in 2023 with your Gifts Today:

• Allow MnCAN to provide scholarship program options creating more opportunity for all persons affected by aphasia
• Expand reach of MnCAN services throughout communities, healthcare systems, businesses and organizations to increase the number of aphasia persons touched
• Provide power for two additional groups enabling participant growth and connections
• Grant continued opportunity for internal change and organizational growth and development

In Their Own Words

"Rehab is hard. MnCAN is a good thing. It's nice to be a part of a group with people my age." 

"To me, it's something I look forward to. I know I'm going to be accepted and can talk to people and know they will listen. MnCAN helped me accept who I am. It's helped me in the recovery process. I hope it will get me to 100% recovery. I might not get there but at least I can try."

"MnCAN has given me a lot of different perspectives of how a stroke has affected people. It's hard to remember what I want to talk about. I get frozen up. MnCAN gives me a chance to say something and it doesn't go to the wind."

"Well, before now I couldn’t say nothing, but more and more I feel like each day I can say more and more as it appears to me. It gets hard less. I sweat a little less. It’s the talking. It’s because everything, I can say it, but I can’t articulate. You know, I can’t make you understand what I’m feeling."

"It helps me to have conversations. Otherwise, you become… kind of get lonesome there. You have nowhere to talk to. So, here, it helps me to talk with other people, and so I enjoy… I like to come and have the conversations. I enjoy that."

"My MnCAN group has taught me not to sweat the small stuff, not to be worried about it, not to be worried about the difficulty and the lack of understanding that I have with MnCAN group ‘cause we are all the same, every one of us, exactly the same, and none of us in the same manner week to week." 

Listen as MnCAN Program Participants share what a difference MnCAN programs 
and the community of peers makes in their lives.                                           

Thank you for making a difference today!