Gormley, J. (September, 2017). “To get our patients the communication system they need at the exact level they are in the rehabilitation process”: An online focus group of speech-language pathologists. Presentation at AAC Colloquium, Penn State University.
Jessica Gormley presented on the results of her recent focus group study with 11 speech-language pathologists of supports and barriers to the use of AAC in inpatient rehabilitation settings. A summary appears below, the entire presentation is available as a handout
The challenge
A severe communication disability can negatively impact the quality of life, health outcomes, and participation of individuals with CCN in medical encounters
- They experience three times more preventable adverse medical events (Bartlett, 2008)
- Reducing communication barriers of individuals with CCN in acute care facilities could prevent 547,906 adverse events annually (projected savings of $5.7 billion) (Hurtig & Alper, 2016)
- Rehabilitation setting is complex and dynamic which impacts service delivery
Barriers to AAC services
Logistics of the rehabilitation setting: time constraints, limited funding, complex coordination of discharge plans, limited AAC protocols
Personnel factors: limited AAC expertise/leadership, attitudes of staff, challenges with team collaboration, communication, or consistency
Tools/trainings: limited time to develop/personalize, challenges with high-tech tools, limited opportunities to train or be trained
Clinical Implications and Recommendations
- Use of multimodal communication tools in the inpatient setting may be beneficial
- Training is necessary to build communicative competence but time and resources may present unique challenges in the inpatient rehabilitation setting
- Integration of AAC and inpatient rehabilitation specific topics into pre- and in-service trainings for rehab professionals may help to strengthen skills and empower leadership
- Consistent team collaboration and communication was reported as integral to supporting individuals with CCN
