Episode #120: Navigating Social Media with Dr. Melissa Brunner

Interviewer info

Lyssa Rome is a speech-language pathologist in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is on staff at the Aphasia Center of California, where she facilitates groups for people with aphasia and their care partners. She owns an LPAA-focused private practice and specializes in working with people with aphasia, dysarthria, and other neurogenic conditions. She has worked in acute hospital, skilled nursing, and continuum of care settings. Prior to becoming an SLP, Lyssa was a public radio journalist, editor, and podcast producer.

In this episode, Lyssa Rome interviews Dr. Liss Brunner about how clinicians can incorporate social media into their work with people with acquired brain injuries.

Guest info

Dr Melissa ‘Liss’ Brunner is an early career researcher, lecturer at the University of Sydney, and a certified practicing speech pathologist with over twenty years of experience in supporting adults with swallowing and communication difficulties. Liss has clinical and research expertise in acquired neurologic disorders, particularly working with people who have experienced a stroke or traumatic brain injury (TBI). Diverse research experiences have enabled Liss to build specialist skills in qualitatively driven social media and digital health mixed methods research. Liss’s doctoral research laid the necessary groundwork in understanding the complexity of the issues surrounding people with TBI using social media and how it may (or may not) be addressed during their rehabilitation.

Listener Take-aways

In today’s episode you will:

• Understand how people with acquired brain injury use social media.
• Learn about barriers and facilitators for safe social media use after brain injury.
• Describe how speech-language pathologists can target social media use in rehab for people with acquired brain injury.

Edited Transcript

Lyssa Rome

Welcome to the Aphasia Access Aphasia Conversations Podcast. I'm Lyssa Rome. I'm a speech language pathologist on staff at the Aphasia Center of California and I see clients with aphasia and other neurogenic communication disorders in my LPAA-focused private practice. 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 Dr. Melissa or Liss Brunner. Liss is an early-career researcher, lecturer at the University of Sydney, and a certified practicing speech pathologist with over 20 years of experience in supporting adults with swallowing and communication difficulties. Liss has clinical and research expertise in acquired neurologic disorders, particularly working with people who have experienced a stroke or traumatic brain injury. She focuses on qualitatively driven social media and digital health mixed-methods research. Her doctoral research laid the necessary groundwork in understanding the complexity of the issues surrounding people with TBI using social media, and how it may or may not be addressed during their rehabilitation. Dr. Liss Brunner, welcome to the Aphasia Access podcast, I'm so glad to be talking with you.

Dr. Liss Brunner

Thanks so much for having me. I'm really, really excited to be here and talk about one of my favorite things.

Lyssa Rome 

Great. So I want to just start by asking you what made you want to study social media use among people with acquired brain injuries? And why is it important to study that?

Dr. Liss Brunner 

I suppose I want to start by asking you a question, Lyssa, if that's alright. Okay. So, I mean, do you use social media?

Lyssa Rome 

I do use social media.

Dr. Liss Brunner 

And what are your favorite types of social media? And why do you use them? Hope you