1. Lay summary Question/Rationale What did you do? Picture 3
Name: Katherine Broomfield
Affiliation: Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust, University of the West of England, Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit
Lay summary
Gloucestershire has historically had access to funding for communication aids for adults with acquired communication difficulties as well as specialist Speech and Language Therapy services to support people learn to use devices. The aim of interviewing established communication aid users is to identify how we can develop and enhance our local services.
Question/Rationale
“Barriers and facilitators to communication aid use: lessons from the experiences of established communication aid users in Gloucestershire gathered from face to face interviews”
What did you do?
Purposive sampling of SL40 Lightwriter users for interview
5 x 1 hour structured interviews carried out
Qualitative analysis of interview data
Picture 3
What did you find out?
The background literature review highlighted that there is no clear consensus about what clinical interventions support communication aid use and what outcomes are considered to be successful. The interviews are currently underway.
Next steps:
Complete the data analysis
Write up the project for publication
Implications: Further research is required on what constitutes successful communication aid use and how professionals can best support this.