Speech Pathology Week (August 22-28) aims to raise awareness for clients requiring support with their communication or swallowing. This year’s focus is on the right for every person to be able to communicate.
Here at Monash Health we have over 100 speech pathologists working across the lifespan and continuum to ensure all our patients have equal access to communication.
Over 1.2 million Australians have a communication disability that affects a person’s ability to understand and be understood by others. Children and older people make up the majority of these people. The levels of limitation can range from mild to profound and can be temporary or last a lifetime.
1 in 7 people with a communication disability needs formal assistance with communication, and over half of all people who need formal assistance with communication have an unmet need for this assistance.
There are a variety of common communication disorders that you may see on the wards or in the community, and these include:
- Aphasia is an acquired neurogenic language disorder resulting from an injury to the brain, usually in the left hemisphere. Aphasia can impair spoken language expression, spoken language comprehension, written expression and reading comprehension.
- Dysarthria refers to a group of neurogenic speech disorders which impacts aspects of speech production. Dysarthria can result in the reduced intelligibility and naturalness of speech.
- Apraxia of speech/dyspraxia is a breakdown in the motor programming of speech sounds. Think of it as IKEA furniture without the instructions; you know what it is supposed to look like but don’t know how to put it together.
- Dysphonia is a voice disorder affecting the quality, pitch, or loudness of an individual’s voice, which is inappropriate for their age, gender, cultural background or geographic location.
- Cognitive-communication impairments occur when a person’s cognitive function impacts their ability to communicate effectively.
The causes for communication impairments can include stroke, traumatic brain injury, degenerative diseases, head and neck cancers, brain tumours, delirium and poor medical status.
There are many ways to assist someone who has difficulty communicating, including:
- Asking the person with the disability what will help with communication.
- When you don’t understand, let them know you have difficulty understanding.
- Try asking the person yes or no questions if you are having difficulty understanding them.
- Allow the person time to respond, so always be patient.
- If you ask a question, wait for the person to respond.
- To make sure you are understood, check with the person that you have understood them correctly
If any staff are having difficulty communicating or know someone who is, they can reach out to their GP for a referral to a Speech Pathologist in the community. Alternatively, if they have any questions regarding what speech pathologists do, they can have a chat to any one of the friendly Speech Pathologists at Monash Health.