We reported our experiences with providing speech-language therapy to foreign language-speaking patients. The patients were English, Spanish, Chinese, Swahili and Persian speakers. The primary therapist was Japanese and had no experience in many of the target languages. Assessments were made and treatments were delivered to the patients with the assistance of interpreters and necessary information obtained from the Internet. Of the five patients reported, 3 patients were assessed as unimpaired or suffering only very mild aphasia and received no therapy, and 2 patients were assessed with severe aphasia and received speech-language therapy. It was indicated that the presence of an interpreter, the severity of aphasia and the accessibility to target language speech-language therapy information were the important factors in conducting foreign language therapy. In addition, arrangements need to be made to include a means to correct a patient's utterances, provide immediate feedback during therapy and translate all of the testing materials.

The purpose of this study is to investigate stroke patients in a convalescent rehabilitation ward of an acute stroke center. We collected data on 314 stroke patients discharged from the convalescent rehabilitation ward between January 2004 and December 2005. In total, 108 patients were classified as our regional inter-hospital referral model group. Alternately, 206 patients were classified as our intra-hospital referral model group. The regional inter-hospital referral model group took a longer time for transferring and discharging as compared with the intra-hospital referral model group. There was a significant difference in the days between onset of stroke and transfer, and the days between onset of stroke and discharge returned home. In conclusion, we should have a better opinion of the intra-hospital referral model in order to improve the quality of rehabilitation medicine.