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Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) Support Group
Welcome to the Primary Progressive Aphasia Support Group page. Here you can access support group newsletters, find out about dates for upcoming support group meetings and watch recordings of past support group meetings.
Contact Us
Newsletters
To find out more about the PPA Support Group you can view our newsletters:
| September 2015 | May 2015 | January 2015 |
| August 2014 | May 2014 | February 2014 |
| Spring-Summer 2013 | Autumn 2013 | Winter 2012 |
| Summer 2012 | Spring 2012 | Autumn 2011 |
Support Group Meetings
Future Meetings
| 17th June 2016 | A regional PPA support group will take place in Totteridge on Friday 17th June from 10.30am - 12.30pm at Totteridge Community Centre, HP13 6UG. For details please see this flyer. Please RSVP to Jennie Grassly: jennie.grassly@buckshealthcare.nhs.uk / 01494 734415 or Jill Walton: jill.walton@ucl.ac.uk / 07592 540 555 |
| 7th July 2016 |
The venue for this meeting is the front Events Quadrangle Venue on the UCL Gower St site, WC1E 6BT (please see map for directions - opens new window). The meeting is scheduled from 11am -2pm, with coffee available from 10.30am and lunch provided. The theme of the meeting will be Medical –Legal Issues. We will be joined by James Mabey, a solicitor specialising in Private Client law and experienced in the preparation of Lasting Powers of Attorney and Advance Statements. He advises on all aspects of their use, benefits, registration and other issues that often arise. James will give a presentation to help dispel some myths and outline the benefits of making these documents and the processes involved. |
| 21st July 2016 |
This PPA Support Group meeting will be taking place in the Wilkins Haldane Room (please see map for directions - opens new window) on the 21st July, 2016. More details to follow closer to the date. Please email Jill Walton for more information. |
Past Meetings
| 21st April 2016 |
We welcolmed Anna Volkmer to our full PPA Support group who spoke about 'Keeping families talking: speech and language therapy for people with PPA and their families'. Anna is a specialist Speech and Language Therapist who is currently developing a PPA specific training resource for other speech and language therapists. We were also joined by David Lane, a Playwright and Dramaturg, Leverhulme Arts Scholar and Associate Teacher at Bristol University. He worked with staff at the Dementia Research Centre to research a script depicting one man's journey through a PPA diagnosis known as Progressive Non Fluent Aphasia (PNFA). |
| 3rd December 2015 |
We held a full PPA Support Group where Chris Hardy spoke about 'Speech processing in primary progressive aphasia' and Dr Sharon Savage presented her recent research: "Feeling lost for words? Word retraining programs to help people with Semantic Dementia". We were also joined again by the wonderful Cocklepickers, a ukulele and banjo group. |
| 18th November 2015 | We held a rare dementia carers' meeting where Dr Liz Sampson, a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department, Division of Psychiatry, University College London joined us to share her expert knowledge and facilitated a discussion on palliative and end of life care in dementia. |
| 29th September 2015 | We held a PPA Support Group meeting, in association with Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. We were delighted to welcome Hannah Golden who presented an update on 'PPA research at the Dementia Research Centre'. We also welcomed Jennie Grassly, a speech and language therapist in Buckinhamshire who shared some practical hints and tips to benefit people with PPA. |
| 16th July 2015 |
We held a Full PPA support group meeting at UCL where Charles Marshall, Clinical Research Fellow at the DRC presented to the group. In the afternoon, Rachel Litherland from Innovations in Dementia talked about The Dementia Engagement and Empowerment Project (DEEP). Innovations in Dementia is a community interest company that works nationally with people with dementia, partner organisations and professionals with the aim of developing and testing projects that will enhance the lives of people with dementia. The Innovations in Dementia CIC facilitates the Dementia Engagement and Empowerment Project which the support groups have signed up to join. |
| 30th April 2015 | We held a Full PPA support group meeting at UCL. Presentations at this meeting included a practical speech therapy intervention presentation from Anna Volkner, Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist and a presentation from Dr Jason Warren, Reader in Neurology at the Dementia Research Centre, UCL. |
Recordings from previous meetings:
PPA support group meeting 3rd December 2015
- We welcomed Chris Hardy, who spoke about speech processing in PPA, and Dr Sharon Savage, who discussed word retraining programmes to help people with Semantic Dementia, in our full PPA support group meeting in December.
Joint carers' support group meeting 18th November 2015
- We held a Joint Carers' Meeting where Dr Liz Sampson who is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department, Division of Psychiatry, University College London joined us to share her expert knowledge on palliative and end of life care in dementia.
PPA support group meeting 16th July 2015
- We welcomed Dr Charlie Marshall, Clinical Research Fellow at the Dementia Research Centre, who presented about his current research into FTD.
16th July 2015 [Part 1]
Joint carers' support group meeting 26th February, 2015
- We welcomed Dr Eneida Mioshi: Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, who spoke about coping strategies for carers.
- Angela Sherman spoke about Continuing Health Care (CHC) funding applications. You can find out more about the organisation she directs at caretobedifferent.co.uk (opens website).
PPA support group meeting 9th October, 2014
- We were delighted to have Anna Voulkmer, a Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, join us to talk about her latest project.
You can catch up on the meeting by watching the video below:
PPA support group meeting 5th June, 2014
- Luke de Visser, a speech and language therapist, gave a talk on communication strategies to use with people with PPA.
You can listen to the talk and see the slides in the video below:
Please note that you assume full responsibility and risk when attending support group meetings, and also in the use of the information contained on our website, in our newsletters and at support group meetings.