Effective interventions within the scope of occupational therapy practice to address participation for adults with aphasia: A systematic review

Abstract

Introduction Occupational therapists work with clients with impaired communication to re-engage in valued occupations. This systematic review seeks to answer the question: What are effective interventions within the scope of occupational therapy practice to address participation for adults with aphasia? Method A systematic review of the literature was completed using PubMed, PsychInfo, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and OT Seeker databases. Intervention studies within the scope of occupational therapy practice with a participation outcome, and published in peer reviewed journals from 2000 to 2019, were included. The quality of each study was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Findings Thirteen articles fit the inclusion criteria. Categories of interventions that emerged from the data include community-based groups, individually tailored programs, adaptation/presentation of materials, interprofessional interventions, and psychoeducation. Conclusion There is evidence to support the use of interventions within the scope of occupational therapy practice to increase participation for people with aphasia. Specifically, the use of community-based groups and adaptation of materials are effective to facilitate participation. Most of the studies were pre-post one group design; however, they demonstrated positive results for participation outcomes. More research is needed on people with aphasia that focuses on participation in meaningful occupations.

Understanding the experience of users of communication aids and applications through focus group discussions with people with aphasia and family members

“…Further studies with other participants who recently completed rehabilitation may provide a more optimistic and compelling portrayal of the digital participation of PWA, presuming that pre-aphasia digital participation will increase in the general population of older adults, i.e., aged 60 years or more at the time of aphasia onset due to brain injury or PPA. We also conclude that within aphasia rehabilitation, be it focused on language recovery or on employing CA/A to compensate for language limitations, the overarching and ultimate goal should more explicitly focus on participation (Laliberté et al, 2016;Alary Gauvreau et al, 2019;Alary Gauvreau and Le Dorze, 2022;Escher et al, 2022), despite significant challenges with this population (Berg et al, 2019). Re-learning to use CA/A to enable PWA to successfully access social media and to compose and read e-mail and text messages may be worthy rehabilitation goals leading to PWA being more independent and better able to participate in significant aspects of their social and community digital lives.…”