Letters to the Editor: Aphasia is a form of hidden disability

Bruce Willis announced that he will step back from his acting career after recently been diagnosed with aphasia, a condition that has affected his cognitive abilities. 

As someone that has battled with aphasia following a stroke, I was saddened to read and hear that Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with the condition. I wish him well in his retirement and hope that he gets all the support that he needs.

Following reports in the media about the condition, it is clear that there needs to be a conversation about aphasia. There needs to be accurate reporting and a clear explanation of the two distinct types of aphasia.

The most common one results from acute brain trauma such as stroke, and the other results from a degenerative brain condition, such as dementia, which is referred to as primary progressive aphasia (PPA). The latter one is what Bruce Willis has sadly been diagnosed with.

Unfortunately, some of what I have seen and heard in the media does not clearly explain the difference and for those like myself who developed the condition following a stroke or a brain injury, it makes for uncomfortable reading.

I have seen the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists (https://www.iaslt.ie/) come out on social media to ask people to check out their website for the correct information on aphasia along with the Aphasia Home Café and professionals such as Dr Helen Kelly of the School of Clinical Therapies in UCC and Dr Molly Manning, of the School of Allied Health at UL, and this is to be greatly welcomed.

As a stroke survivor, I have constantly advocated on behalf of the patient to ensure that the patient voice is heard and in this regard, it is vital that the patient voice is also heard and to stress that aphasia is a language/communication disability and that aphasia itself does not impact cognition.

It most commonly has acute onset following a stroke and in fact, affects one in three with stroke. This begs the question as to how well we care for this cohort of people that suffer with aphasia, but I guess that is a question for another day... or is it?

What concerns me is that some aspects of reporting following the diagnosis of Bruce Willis negates aphasia advocates who stress that cognition/intelligence is not affected.

For those of us with aphasia, it is a form of hidden disability, not obvious until starting to speak. It doesn’t affect intelligence. We know what we want to say but can’t always find the words/sentence structures needed to express ourselves. Therefore accurate reporting is essential. Aphasia can be linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as what Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with but most aphasia is not progressive. For anyone watching the soap Emmerdale, you may have noticed that Marlon is having trouble communicating and is receiving speech and language therapy. Those of us that suffer with the condition will relate fully to the storyline in the programme. I hope that my short contribution on this can lead to a greater conversation on aphasia so that there is accuracy and precision in information and that the patient voice is heard in all circumstances.

Martin Quinn

Father Matthew St

Tipperary Town

Co Tipperary

The terminal at Cork Airport. Picture:  Larry Cummins

What’s happened to Cork Airport?

Cork Airport has played a pivotal role in tourism and the development of the southern region of Ireland since 1961. It has also been known as a good employer. Its connectivity to major cities in Europe has played its part in encouraging multinational companies to base operations in Ireland and by so doing, providing good sustainable jobs. It is therefore with sadness that I read about staffing problems at the airport.

Something is not right at Cork Airport. I travelled through Cork Airport recently and was shocked at the emptiness of the terminal and the transformation from a multi-business model in the terminal to a tumbleweed scenario.

As you walk into the terminal you will see:

•  The bookshop is now closed.
•  The bank is now closed and gone.
•  The airline ticket desks that sold tickets and handled queries are now all closed down.
•  The Subway cafe under the stairs is now closed and converted to staff private space.
•  The upstairs bar that we used to visit with arriving/departing family and friends is now closed up and converted to offices.
•  The upstairs restaurant is now inaccessible unless you have a boarding pass.
•  The information desk that provided an invaluable service is also closed down.
•  There is now a toll for the pickup/ drop-off point outside the terminal.

I was happy to hear the airport invested in its runway upgrade during the Covid pandemic but the terminal is a skeleton of its old self. It is shocking to see a deterioration of such activities that one would consider a fundamental part of an international airport and my thoughts are with the ground staff that must have concerns for their futures and the passengers that have supported the airport that are experiencing such a withdrawal of basic needs.

Airport management must surely know that a disillusioned workforce and declining commercial activity is a recipe for disaster.

Noel Murphy

Manor Hill

Ballincollig

Cork

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The folly of privatisation

Never let a good crisis go to waste came to mind reading your report on the energy crisis SSE Airtricity hikes prices by an average of €670 per year”, Irish Examiner, 1/4/22).

This crisis surely has taught us the folly of privatising the supply of this vital utility. Bringing control of energy back under the direct control of the State — and never again allowing ourselves to be sweet-talked into relinquishing that control again — is surely the only logical response to what is happening

Jim O’Sullivan

Rathedmond

Sligo

Members of the Oireachtas media committee have spent the last 18 months engaging with,  social media companies, privacy and artificial intelligence experts, with children’s rights advocates, and with students, lawyers, academics, and those who have experienced harm on social media.

Establishing a powerful regulator

Your editorial on the regulation of social media companies ‘The toughest sheriff on the internet’,  Irish Examiner, 1/4/22) implies that those of us who take an interest in the area are only engaged in it in the interest of votes and that our responses are knee jerk.

As members of the Oireachtas media committee, we have spent the last 18 months engaging with, among others, social media companies, with privacy and artificial intelligence experts, with children’s rights advocates, and with students, lawyers, academics, and those who have experienced harm on social media.

We also looked at the experiences and actions in other jurisdictions, most notably Australia. As individual senators, we also met with many of these and others privately.

We have considered in detail how we can balance the right to free speech with rights to privacy and one’s reputation.

The general media preference to cover roaring in the Dáil Chamber as opposed to the detailed consideration of legislation means that the work of Oireachtas committees is underreported.

We view our primary role as legislators to ensure the safety of citizens and those resident here, and that applies as much in the digital space as it does on our streets and in our communities.

There are many positives about social media but there are also dark spaces that impact on individuals, on our communities and on our politics. We need to ensure that in designing algorithms and platforms that social media companies minimise any potential harms and that they focus on safety.

That means that the planned new Media Commission and Online Safety Commissioner must work to ensure that tech company behaviour has that focus and that this new regulator has the necessary teeth to take action.

We met with Minister Catherine Martin last week on these matters and we are all committed to achieving these objectives.

The Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill will be one of the most important that the Oireachtas enacts during this term. It will establish, we hope, one of the most powerful and effective regulators in the State. The bill deserves detailed consideration and debate and we make no apologies for seeking to amend it.

Senator Malcolm Byrne
and Senator Shane Cassells

Seanad Éireann

Dublin 2