Fast Facts: Dementia and Augmentative and Alternative Communication

A. May, S. Dada, J. Murray

Description

The purpose of this book is to offer medical, health, and social care professionals who work in acute, medical, long-term, or community care settings insights into the impact of dementia on an individual’s communication interactions and how augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies could enhance these interactions. The first half of the text sets the scene for understanding the nature of dementia and its impact particularly on an individual’s social and emotional life and their language and communication; the second half introduces AAC and what it offers as a set of techniques to support and maintain conversational autonomy in those living with dementia. Table of Contents: • Section 1: The nature and impact of dementia • A description of dementia • Social and emotional impact of dementia • Language and cognitive-communication assessment and approaches to intervention • Section 2: Interventions mediated through augmentative and alternative communication • Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) • Developing AAC interventions: A participatory assessment and intervention process • Communication partner AAC training and support • What everyone should know about dementia, AAC, and conversational partner training

Sujets

• Medical
• Médecine
• Neurology

Informations

• Publié par: S. Karger AG
• Date de parution: 08 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9783318071627
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Fast Facts: Dementia and Augmentative and Alternative Communication: Supporting conversations
First published 2022
Text 2022 Janice Murray, Shakila Dada, Adele May
2022 in this edition S. Karger Verlag f r Medizin und Naturwissenschaften GmbH
S. Karger Verlag f r Medizin und Naturwissenschaften GmbH, Schnewlinstr. 12, 79098 Freiburg, Germany; tel: [phone]
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ISBN 978-3-318-07084-2
Murray J (Janice)
Fast Facts: Dementia and Augmentative and Alternative Communication: Supporting conversations/
Janice Murray, Shakila Dada, Adele May
Typesetting by Amnet, Chennai, India
Printed in the UK with Xpedient Print
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Section 1: The Nature and Impact of Dementia
A description of dementia
The social and emotional impact of dementia
Language and cognitive-communication assessment and approaches to intervention
Section 2: Interventions Mediated Through Augmentative and Alternative Communication
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)
Developing AAC interventions: A participatory assessment and intervention process
Communication partner AAC training and support
What should everyone know about dementia, AAC, and conversational partner training?
Useful resources
Appendix: about the authors
Index
Acknowledgements
There are many people to thank for their contribution to the production of this book. They include colleagues, family members, friends, and patients. It is difficult to express how much this text was informed, supported, and influenced by those who have personal and professional experience of the challenges incurred by dementia. We offer our heartfelt thanks to those living with dementia and their families for their courage and generosity in what they were able to offer us as insights that informed the content of the book. With respect to confidentiality, we will name some and leave others to infer where they contributed.
We owe a great deal to the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) and Karger Publishers for their support and enthusiasm for this text. In particular, we would like to express our thanks to IALP President, Professor Pamela Enderby, for her encouragement to take this publication forward, and to Patrick Welge for his support during the production period.
Dr Kate Anderson and Professor Pamela Enderby offered us insightful reviews and comments on a draft of the book. These comments and suggestions hugely improved the final document. Thank you for your time and your suggestions.
The members of the AAC committee (IALP) were supportive of our endeavours and offered specific guidance on how to improve the content.
And, finally, to specific family members - you know who you are. You were our inspiration, our guide, and our reason for undertaking this work.
Introduction
Overview of the book
Dementia is a global health priority, as stated in the G20 summit declaration of July 2019. An estimated 50 million people worldwide have dementia, with nearly 60% living in low- and middle-income countries. 1 , 2 Every year, there are nearly 10 million new instances of dementia diagnosis. 3 The impact of the condition on the health and well-being of those living with dementia, including family members, is not fully understood. In particular, the economic, health, and social consequences require better understanding to support targeted and timely interventions. 4
This book attempts to set out everyday interaction environments and considers how these impact those living with dementia and their conversational partners, especially family members, primary carers, and care staff. The book provides an overview of the current knowledge base of the dementias, their impact on social and emotional well-being, and progressive changes in language and cognitive abilities. A substantial feature of this text is the consideration of maintaining connectedness with those living with dementia through meaningful, co-constructed interactions, in particular those mediated through augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) techniques. Research suggests that there is limited knowledge across the international workforce regarding how techniques offered by AAC resources can enhance the communication dyad, which in turn reduces conversation partner distress and increases the quality of interactions between persons living with dementia and their primary conversational partners.
As advocated in the literature, an underlying premise of this text is the application of a person-centred intervention perspective to support and maintain communication participation in persons living with dementia. 5 The concepts of a person-centred care approach refer to a person with dementia s prerequisite right of inclusion in social relationships, autonomy in making choices, self-determination, and preferences that facilitate well-being. 6 A person-centred approach recognises an individual s strengths and remaining functional cognitive abilities, with prominence of the life story, heritage, culture, and past experiences of the person with dementia and other important individuals in their social environment. A person-centred method enables all practitioners to gain a deeper appreciation for the person behind the dementia , which may have the potential to enhance how the individual with dementia is viewed. 7 This text will focus on the role of clinicians as they work to support meaningful communication outcomes during person-centred AAC interventions, including non-electronic (e.g., books with photographs) and electronic (e.g., tablet technologies) devices. 8 , 9
The text is organised into 2 sections: (i) the nature and impact of dementia, and (ii) interventions mediated through AAC techniques.
Aims of the book
The purpose of this text is to offer medical, health, and social care professionals who work in acute, medical, long-term, or community care settings insights into the impact of dementia on an individual s communication interactions and how AAC strategies could enhance these interactions.
This introduction summarises the content of the 2 sections and their chapters, indicating the learning objectives related to each chapter.
Section 1: The nature and impact of dementia . This section of the book sets the scene for understanding the nature of dementia and its impact particularly on an individual s social and emotional life and their language and communication. Consideration of approaches to assessment and intervention are included.
Chapter 1 - A description of dementia . As a context for interpreting the relevance of intervention approaches, this chapter provides a description of the medical characteristics and progression of the dementias. This divides into a definition of dementia, a brief discussion of the risk factors for dementia, prevalence information, and descriptions of the key types of dementia with their differing characteristics. The chapter also provides a discussion of how dementia is diagnosed and what is understood about the course of the disease. By way of setting the scene for the remaining book content, the chapter concludes with a section on the impact of dementia on communication abilities.
Chapter learning objective: to understand the varying forms of dementia and begin to appreciate the impact these may have on professionals decision-making and the type of communication interactions they have with persons living with dementia.
Chapter 2 - Social and emotional impact of dementia . This chapter discusses the social and emotional impact of dementia from the perspective of both the person living with dementia and those around them. It departs from a biomedical conceptualisation of dementia as in Chapter 1 to highlight the significance of biopsychosocial elements of social and emotional well-being in those living with dementia. The chapter progresses to a discussion of the facilitators that may promote social and emotional well-being in persons with dementia and those closest to them.
Chapter learning objective: to gain an understanding of the social and emotional impact of dementia and ways to promote well-being of persons living with the condition through psychosocial interventions.
Chapter 3 - Language and cognitive-communication assessment and approaches to intervention . This chapter reviews currently recommended approaches to language and cognitive-communication assessment and associated interventions for clients with dementia. The content of the chapter is taken from the theoretical perspectives informing the clinician s management decisions. Specifically, the content recognises the involvement of the speech and language therapist/pathologist (SLT/P) and the psyc