Sport, Health & Wellbeing
The UC students speaking out about the greater role speech pathology can play in aged care communication
For Lizzie McHenry, sitting down to speak to her 94-year-old grandfather isn’t as simple as just pulling up a chair and talking about what she has been up to or even how the weather has been.
Her Nonno – who grew up in Spresiano, Italy speaking Italian, before emigrating to Australia at 21 – currently lives in an aged care facility here in Canberra and has been diagnosed with dementia.
“I’ve seen firsthand how he’s struggled,” Lizzie says.
Lizzie is now in her second year of a Master of Speech Pathology at the ΊμΆΉΚΣΖ΅, and the strategies learned during her study have helped shape the way she communicates with her grandfather.
“I make sure I’ve got his attention before I talk to him, and that he can see me properly, and I make sure that the TV is turned off, so there isn’t extra noise. Even things like bringing in a photobook can help him recall more memories,” Lizzie says.
“These kinds of strategies might seem simple, but I’ve only learned about them since studying this degree.”
These same skills that Lizzie has learned at UC and uses regularly have lead Lucy Vandergugten, another Masters of Speech Pathology student, down a path of reflection as she considers her own experiences with her grandparents, who also had dementia.
“It’s made me think about all the things we didn’t know were possible to do to support them ... and all the things we could have done to have made communication better. Having this experience and looking back at that time has highlighted for me the need for this research,” Lucy says.
Lizzie and Lucy are now part of a team of three UC masters students exploring the different ways speech pathology skills can be used when working in aged care settings to encourage conversations that allow for meaningful engagement.
“Our role in aged care is only just really starting to grow. When UK researchers have surveyed speech pathologists, it has found that a large part of the role they performed was to do with swallowing and making sure diets were modified, but it was very limited in terms of communication,” Lucy says.
For Phoebe Wallner, the third member of the team, stepping into an aged care facility on a work placement helped open her eyes to the different ways speech pathology can be used – including in unexpected ways, such as at craft group sessions.
The group activity creating new environments for residents to communicate, not just with speech pathologists, but also other people in similar circumstances without the stress of a formal therapy session.
“We had one client who had dementia and really struggled to make decisions, even with things like choosing a pink or red button,” explains Phoebe.
“But by the end of the program she was actively making decisions for herself, as well as engaging with other people in the group, asking them what they’d done at the craft session. There was a huge difference in her active engagement.”
Seeing this change in engagement inspired Phoebe to find out more about the ways that meaningful communication can improve aged care residents’ mental health and increase their quality-of-life satisfaction.
“It was really interesting to see how well it improved people’s moods and how engaged they were with the world – we got to listen to them talk about things that weren’t just the practicalities of life,” Phoebe says.
Lizzie also seeing firsthand how these small environmental changes have positively impacted her Nonno’s quality of life.
“I’ve seen now that he sits and talks with other people, which he wasn’t doing before. It’s something that they have been doing their whole lives but with the decline in their cognitive abilities they just need these little prompts and extra support to continue doing it,” Lizzie says.
To find out more about other families’ experiences, an anonymous Australia-wide survey has been launched; anyone over 18 can participate.
The multiple-choice survey seeks to understand the areas in which aged care residents struggle to communicate – from understanding conversations to expressing their own desires.
“We’re looking for people who have a regular connection to someone in residential aged care – these could be anyone from family to friends. We want that firsthand experience” Lucy says.
The team hopes that the research from the scoping study will help build the data needed for the next cohort of students to use and build on, shaping and guiding the ways that speech pathology is utilised across society.
“It is still quite a young profession, and as it grows, more knowledge comes to light – so we hope this kind of research will progress into the future and support other students to help the next generation of older people,” Lizzie says.
However, as the wait for more research to be developed continues, loved ones are encouraged to do what they can now to keep the conversation alive.
“It doesn’t matter if a conversation goes off on a tangent – it’s still meaningful to them and engaging their brain and keeping it active, which is such an important thing,” Phoebe says.
The survey is open until 30 September and you can take part by clicking on the link
Words by Georgie Burgess, photos by Tyler Cherry.