“I definitely think it’s a feasible and worthwhile option”: perspectives of speech-language pathologists providing online aphasia group therapy

Pitt, Rachelle; Hill, Anne J.; Theodoros, Deborah; Russell, Trevor

doi:10.1080/02687038.2018.1482403

Cited by 30 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The therapy was delivered to groups of four participants using an Adobe Connect video conferencing platform. A pilot study and mixed methods phase 2 trial showed that TeleGAIN was feasible [35] and positively perceived by those who delivered the intervention [37]. Those who received TeleGAIN made significant improvements on a range of measures, including the Assessment of Living with Aphasia and the Comprehensive Aphasia Test [36].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is growing evidence that telerehabilitation can be used to both assess [ 30 , 31 ] and treat [ 32 – 34 ] people with aphasia. While most applications of telerehabilitation have been delivered one to one, researchers in Australia have additionally explored the feasibility of delivering remote group therapy [ 35 – 37 ]. This team developed a 12 week (18 hour) programme of therapy called TeleGAIN, which aimed to improve communication related quality of life.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A randomised trial of social support group intervention for people with aphasia: A Novel application of virtual reality

et al. 2020

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About a third of strokes cause aphasia, or language loss, with profound consequences for the person's social participation and quality of life. These problems may be mitigated by group social support. But this intervention is not available to all individuals. This study investigated whether it is feasible to deliver group social support to people with aphasia via a multiuser , virtual reality platform. It also explored the indicative effects of intervention and the costs. Intervention aimed to promote wellbeing and communicative success. It enabled participants to form new social connections and share experiences of living with aphasia. It comprised 14 sessions delivered over 6 months and was led by community based coordinators and volunteers. Feasibility measures comprised: recruitment and retention rates, compliance with intervention and assessment of treatment fidelity. Effects of intervention were explored using a waitlist randomised controlled design, with outcome measures of wellbeing, communication, social connectedness and quality of life. Two intervention groups were randomised to an immediate condition and two were randomised to a delayed condition. The main analysis explored scores on the measures between two time points, between which those in the immediate condition had received intervention, but those in the delayed group had not (yet). A comprehensive approach to economic data collection ensured that all costs of treatment delivery were recorded. Feasibility findings showed that the recruitment target was met (N = 34) and 85.3% (29/34) of participants completed intervention. All groups ran the 14 sessions as planned, and participants attended a mean of 11.4 sessions (s.d. 2.8), which was 81.6% of the intended dose. Fidelity checking showed minimal drift from the manualised intervention. No significant change was observed on any of the outcome measures, although the study was not powered to detect these. Costs varied across the four groups, from £7,483-£12,562 British Pounds Sterling ($10,972-$18,419 US dollars), depending on travel costs, the relative contributions of volunteers and the number of hardware loans that were needed. The results suggest that a larger trial of remote group support,

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A randomised trial of social support group intervention for people with aphasia: A Novel application of virtual reality

et al. 2020

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“…Similarly, feasibility testing is needed regarding implementation of online supported conversation for participation in clinical settings and the voluntary sector for both rehabilitative and long-term recovery purposes. Aspects such as technological equipment and Internet access, Internet reliability, availability of information technology support, technology skills and confidence, and accessible training and troubleshooting resources would be important considerations (Pitt, Hill, Theodoros, & Russell, 2018). This also includes seeking feedback from participants on the telerehabilitation delivery (Kearns, Kelly, & Pitt, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary outcomes from a pilot study of personalised online supported conversation for participation intervention for people with Aphasia

et al. 2020

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Background: Aphasia negatively impacts face-to-face social participation and the difficulties that people experience using the phone exacerbate these challenges in staying in touch with family and friends. Videoconferencing enables multimodal communication, and teamed with supported conversation, could facilitate access to conversation and thereby increase social participation for people with chronic aphasia. Aims: This pilot study examined whether supported conversation provided over Skype could improve people's social participation. It reports on preliminary outcomes of this intervention on people's social network, communication confidence, aphasia-related quality of life and mood. Methods & Procedures: 29 participants with chronic aphasia received an initial 2-hour technology training session followed by 16hours of online supported conversation for participation intervention provided by qualified or student speech and language therapists. Intervention was personalised by individualising goals in technology, communication and participation. An observational prospective cohort study design was used with baseline, immediately post-intervention, and 8-week follow-up assessments. Measures of social network and communication confidence (primary outcome measures), and aphasia-related quality of life, life participation, and mood (secondary outcome measures) were undertaken. Shapiro-Wilk tests were conducted to examine normality of distributions of each of the variables. Where data were normally distributed, one-way repeated measures ANOVAs were used to examine the effect of time. Where data were not normally distributed, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test was used.Outcomes & Results: 27 participants completed the intervention. As a group, participants reported significantly more social contacts, more life participation, and higher aphasia-related quality of life post-intervention, which were maintained. There was a group gain on the measure of communication confidence post-intervention, although this was not maintained. As a group, participants' mood did not significantly change through intervention and follow-up. Individual variability was noted across all outcome measures.Conclusions: These preliminary findings suggest that relatively low dose and non-intensive online supported conversation for participation intervention delivered by qualified or student speech and language therapists improved social participation in some people with aphasia and improved their quality of life. Communication confidence also improved for some, although benefits were short-term. Findings make novel contributions to the existing supported conversation evidence base with positive social participation and quality of life outcomes, likely achieved by the explicit participation focus. Whilst preliminary findings are positive, study limitations need addressing. Further investigations are merited to refine the intervention and outcome measure choice, and capture feasibility data. Finally, a definitive controlled trial is needed to explore clinical e...

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“…Growing evidence supports the feasibility of delivering traditional face-to-face therapy interventions via a telehealth platform (e.g., Hall et al, 2013;Pitt et al, 2018Pitt et al, , 2019). In the current study, a storytelling therapy delivered via the online platform, EVA Park, appeared to be feasible and resulted in improvements of direct measures of therapy including story content, story grammar, and argument structure.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is difficult to say what impact this had on the intervention as the study did not compare face-to-face and online versions of the therapy. Other telehealth-delivered aphasia interventions have made use of multimodal communication supports to enable individuals with severe aphasia to participate in online intervention groups (e.g., Pitt et al, 2018). Yet the lack of face-to-face communication in EVA Park has not proved to be problematic; for example, a participant with moderate/ severe non-fluent aphasia made significant improvements in naming treated nouns in EVA Park despite both the cues and the participant's responses focusing on the spoken modality (Marshall et al, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adapting therapy for a new world: storytelling therapy in EVA Park

et al. 2020

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Background: Storytelling is fundamental to human communication yet is under-represented in aphasia therapy research and clinical practice. Access to care may be one obstacle; in the broader healthcare context, remote modes of treatment delivery can increase individuals' access to care. EVA Park is a highly novel, online platform designed with people with aphasia that has shown capacity to improve aspects of language and communication. Aims: This study explored whether it is feasible to deliver a storytelling intervention in EVA Park and whether therapy brought about improvements in the content and organisation of their narratives. Changes in functional communication and technology use were also examined. Methods and procedures: In a pilot feasibility study, three individuals with aphasia were recruited in the UK and Australia. Over five weeks, participants received 20 hours of therapy in EVA Park, consisting of three weekly sessions with a speech therapist and one weekly session in which the participant told the story to a volunteer who was blinded to the content of their story. A repeated-measures, case series design was used to evaluate therapy. The primary measure assessed the content of narratives elicited by novel video stimuli twice before and twice after therapy. Secondary measures investigated structural features of the video narratives and of personal narratives. Functional communication was assessed with the Communication Activities of Daily Living assessment, and technology use was probed via a Technology Screen. Outcomes and results: Delivery of storytelling therapy via EVA Park was feasible; technology challenges arose and were resolved using multiple strategies. Following therapy, participants' storytelling improved in content, with a large effect size for the group, and in structure. Generalisation to personal narratives was not observed. Some improvements were seen in functional communication. Conclusions: Storytelling therapy delivered via an online platform is feasible and may improve the content and organisation of participants' storytelling, with some evidence of generalisation to functional communication.

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“I definitely think it’s a feasible and worthwhile option”: perspectives of speech-language pathologists providing online aphasia group therapy

Cited by 30 publications

References 32 publications

A randomised trial of social support group intervention for people with aphasia: A Novel application of virtual reality

A randomised trial of social support group intervention for people with aphasia: A Novel application of virtual reality

Preliminary outcomes from a pilot study of personalised online supported conversation for participation intervention for people with Aphasia

Adapting therapy for a new world: storytelling therapy in EVA Park

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