Episode #105: Your Permission Slip to Do Secret Therapy in Conversation with Mary Ann Eller

Welcome to the Aphasia Access Aphasia Conversations Podcast. I'm Katie Strong, a faculty member at Central Michigan University where I lead the Strong Story Lab. I'm also a member of the Aphasia Access Podcast Working Group. Aphasia Access strives to provide members with information, inspiration, and ideas that support their aphasia care through a variety of educational materials and resources. I'm today's host for an episode that will feature Mary Ann Eller. We'll be talking about incorporating the Life Participation Approach to Aphasia (better known as LPAA) in Acute Care Settings.

Let me first tell you a bit about our guest.

Mary Ann Eller, MA, CCC-SLP is the Assistant Manager for Rehab Services in the Speech and Language Pathology Department at Duke Regional Hospital in Durham, NC. She has worked in the Duke University Health Care System since 1989. She specializes in evaluating and treating adults with neurogenic and swallowing disorders in acute care and inpatient acute rehab. Her current professional passions are finding functional, practical, and patient-center approaches to the care of people with aphasia, dementia and all cognitive/communication problems.

In this episode you will: Receive a permission slip to do secret therapy. Hear about how the Life Participation Approach to Aphasia Core Values can be implemented into acute care. Understand how implementing the Life Participation Approach to Aphasia supports the Joint Commission standards on health literacy. Be empowered to welcome interruptions and struggles and embrace the messiness and the creativity and the joy of using LPAA in acute care.

Katie Strong: Welcome Mary Ann! I'm just so excited to have this conversation with you today! And we were just in Durham, at the Aphasia Access Leadership Summit, where you showcased your beautiful city. Thanks for hosting us.

Mary Ann Eller: I'm really excited to be here and very honored that you asked me to do this podcast.

Katie Strong: Well, I'm excited for people to hear about your thoughts. And as we get started, I wondered if you could share a bit about your own speech language pathology journey, and about the hospital setting you work in.

Mary Ann Eller: I grew up in Pittsburgh. I went to the University of Pittsburgh for my undergraduate and graduate degree and then I went to the Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore for my CFY. And that's where I fell in love with acute care, you can't get more acute than that. Then I moved to Durham, North Carolina and I have worked at Duke since 1989, which is 34 years if you're counting. And I started when I was five! It's been a great experience. I've worked mostly in acute care and acute inpatient rehab. When I was new in my career, I loved the excitement of acute care. And I think as I grew older, I fell in love with rehab because I have more personal experiences with being in the hospital and with myself and with my parents. I just saw how important effective communication was at that time in people's lives. And that's what I really want to talk about today.

Katie Strong: Yeah, I'm excited for this conversation. And as we dig in a little deeper, tell me how you became interested in applying the Life Participation Approach to Aphasia (LPAA) to acute care settings.

Mary Ann Eller: Yeah, this is an interesting story to me. At the University of Pittsburgh, Audrey Holland was there at the time. As people who know her and her work, she is known for being extremely functional. So, I sort of grew up professionally knowing that being functional was the way to go. That was in the late 80s, so the LPAA had not been developed yet, which was around the year 2000, I believe when the impairment-based focus of therapy was recognized as not meeting the mark. It wasn't really helping people where they were at. And so, this LPAA not being a therapy approach, but more of an idea. LPAA is a philosophy of treatment, not a specific treatment approach. So, we could still use the trea