A scoping review of friendship intervention for older adults: lessons for designing intervention for people with aphasia

Specific Character of Arbitrary Regulation in Various Forms of Aphasia

“…Even at first glance, an unconscious action has internal prerequisites for its accomplishment, which means that it was previously considered in one form or another in a mental form, reflecting an ideomotor type of personality activity, which later creates fundamental reactions so that a person reproduces them on a physical level in the form of behavioral, emotional or speech reactions, as well as when they are combined at the level of arbitrary regulation, which for a person are a motor and emotional manifestation. This is reflected in the social, educational, environmental aspects, where everything previously seen, heard, felt or done at the physical activity level becomes a formed mechanism that further allows a person to manifest himself at this level, which increases or decreases in the criteria of temporary factors of the individual's stay in the conditions of the considered situational impact or influence, as well as motivation to achieve the target indicator facing a person at the level of his moral and other personality qualities [8]. However, with aphasia, which reflects a speech disorder, the factors of communication interaction are disrupted, and at the same time, due to the presence of formed arbitrary regulation, a distorted picture of self-expression of a person who cannot fully express himself in society, at home or in public places, in a professional environment, does not have the opportunity to explain his feelings and needs, and seeing, in his opinion, the "wrong" reaction to his self-expression from others, he is provoked to develop a line of certain behavior (motor reactions, actions) with an emotional coloring, which will reflect his internal state against the background of violations in communication and understanding with others, as well as at the level of personal aspects characteristic, based on the importance of the situation that has developed for the personality of a patient with aphasia, which increases or decreases against the background of reactions of surrounding people and interlocutors.…”

Stakeholder-Engaged Research

“…An overview of the agenda, preset by the university-based researchers, was provided including (1) explain research agenda (Azios et al, 2021); (2) conduct a scoping review of literature of the nature of friendship intervention and prevention in older adults (Douglas et al, 2022); (3) learn about the impact of aphasia on friendship from people with aphasia, friends, care partners, and SLPs through qualitative interviews; and (4) develop and pilot a friendship maintenance program based on information learned from the previous phases. A meeting schedule was set for every 3 months with email correspondence more regularly as needed.…”

“…In fact, at 6 months poststroke, one-fifth of people with aphasia report not having any friends (Northcott et al, 2016a). Developing interventions to address social connection and friendship may support the overall health and well-being of people living with aphasia, but research and clinical resources are needed in this area (Azios et al, 2021;Douglas et al, 2022). Patterson et al (1993) have found that strong and dependable relationships with friends impact well-being.…”

“…Interestingly, interventions targeting increasing social networks have been recommended for people with aphasia (Northcott et al, 2016b). However, there are no known interventions targeting the quality of friendship of people with aphasia (Douglas et al, 2022).…”

“…People with aphasia have noted that resources such as aphasia support groups and intensive aphasia programs allow them to establish new friends; however, they are often troubled by the loss of their friends prior to the onset of aphasia. Yet, there are no interventions that target the maintenance of friendships that existed prior to onset of stroke and aphasia (Douglas et al, 2022) leaving people with aphasia and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) with no tools to help prevent friendship loss and the potential resultant social isolation. As such, there is a need for intervention for friendship for people with aphasia who attend to both the quality and the maintenance of friendships.…”