Perceptions of occupational and physiotherapists regarding their communication with clients with post-stroke aphasia during rehabilitation

Abstract

Background: Persons with post-stroke aphasia often require rehabilitation services, including those provided by occupational therapists and physiotherapists. Due to the communication impairments that persons with post-stroke aphasia experience, their interaction with such healthcare professionals is often challenging. Understanding how occupational and physiotherapists navigate such interactions can be a helpful starting point for possible interventions to support these interactions. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the perceptions of South African occupational and physiotherapists on their communication with clients with post-stroke aphasia during rehabilitation.

Methods: An online questionnaire was developed to investigate the perceptions of occupational therapists and physiotherapists on their communication with clients with post- stroke aphasia. A combination of convenience and snowball sampling was used to recruit participants. Responses were received from 42 professionals. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the results.

Results: Participants reported that communication with clients with aphasia was very important during rehabilitation, but only perceived this communication to be somewhat effective. They reported using various strategies to support understanding and expression of clients with aphasia. The severity of the clients’ communication difficulty was rated as the most significant challenge to communication, while input from other professionals such as SLTs was perceived as a helpful asset to support communication with clients with aphasia. While many professionals had previously attended training in communication support strategies for clients with aphasia, all participants indicated that they would like more training in this area. Professionals in both groups indicated that they would like to receive training on communication support strategies for clients with aphasia. Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrate that professionals do value communication with clients with aphasia, and that they already implement communication strategies to support this process. However, the need for additional training is also clear to improve professionals’ skills and confidence. Institutional and organisational factors may also need to be addressed to optimise communication between rehabilitation professionals and their clients with aphasia.

Keywords: Aphasia, rehabilitation, communication support strategies, person-centred care