Rationale: The study aimed to explore the practices of South African speech-language therapists in providing psychosocial care to people with aphasia. People with aphasia are at risk of adverse psychosocial disruptions and access to appropriate support may be particularly challenging for individuals with compromised communication abilities. The study was the first of its kind in the unique multilingual and multicultural context. By understanding current practices, direction for improved psychosocial care to people with aphasia, as well as support to speech-language therapists delivering this care may be provided. Method: A 20-item previously published online survey was completed by 56 South African speech-language therapists. Purposive sampling and snowball sampling were used to recruit participants for the study. A mixed-methods design was adopted. Descriptive and inferential statistics, as well as qualitative content analysis, were used. Results: Respondents recognised addressing psychosocial wellbeing to be very important. A variety of psychosocial approaches were used in practice. However, 67.9% of the sample felt ill-equipped to provide psychosocial care to people with aphasia. Further barriers included: time/caseload pressures (60.7%) and feeling out of their depth (48.2%). Enablers were access to more training opportunities (89.3%), adequate time (62.5%), and ongoing support from skilled professionals (55.4%). The majority of respondents also perceived mental health professionals to have limited expertise in working with people with aphasia, making onward referral challenging. Conclusions: Respondents aimed to support people with aphasia’s psychosocial wellbeing by working collaboratively, including family and setting person centred goals. However, many challenges to the provision of psychosocial care to people with aphasia were identified. In order to improve services, more training, role definition and interprofessional collaboration is required. / Dissertation (MA (Speech-Language Pathology))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / MA (Speech-Language Pathology) / Restricted

No description available.

No description available.

Around 30,000 people in Sweden suffer stroke every year, out of which about 12,000 end up with language difficulties, aphasia. Behind every person with aphasia there are significant others whose lives are also affected. Studies of how aphasia affects the health of these people are few. The overall aim of the present study was to examine how significant others of people with aphasia perceive their life situation, and how their quality of life is affected by the illness of their partner. Spouses of people with aphasia were contacted through aphasia groups and the Swedish Aphasia Association. A total of eleven people participated in the study, which consisted of the health survey SF-36 and semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that men, working people, and people at retirement age are at risk of having a lower health-related quality of life, by living with a person suffering from aphasia. Other factors that seemed to contribute to a lower quality of life were; a more severe aphasia, a big work load at home, less mutual activities as a couple, and a general decrease of communication in everyday life. The conclusion is therefore, that the health-related quality of life is at risk of becoming negatively affected by living with a person who suffers from aphasia. / Varje år insjuknar cirka 30 000 personer i stroke i Sverige och av dem drabbas cirka 12 000 av språkliga svårigheter i form av afasi. Bakom varje person med afasi finns det anhöriga, vars liv också påverkas. Hur afasin påverkar den anhöriges hälsa är inte väl studerat. Det övergripande syftet med föreliggande studie var därmed att undersöka hur anhöriga, till personer med afasi, uppfattar sin egen livssituation, samt hur deras livskvalitet påverkas av den närståendes sjukdom. Partner till personer med afasi kontaktades genom afasigrupper och afasiföreningar. Totalt valde elva personer att deltaga i studien, vilken bestod av hälsoenkäten SF-36 samt en semistrukturerad intervju. Resultaten pekade på att män, yrkesverksamma och personer i pensionsålder riskerar att få en lägre hälsorelaterad livskvalitet av att leva med någon med afasi. Övriga faktorer, som tycktes bidra till en lägre livskvalitet, var en svårare afasi, en hög börda i hemmet, färre gemensamma aktiviteter som par samt en generell försämring av kommunikationen i vardagen. Slutsatsen är därmed att den hälsorelaterade livskvaliteten riskerar att påverkas negativt av att leva med en person som drabbats av afasi.