26 Speak Out
February 2014
Speech Pathology Australia
BRANCH NEWS
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
THE DEVELOPMENT
of the
Speech Pathology program at Edith
Cowan University in Perth has been
accompanied by significant research
activity, with the Speech Pathology team
currently working on two large projects
receiving over $1.4M from the National
Health Medical Research Council in
2013.
Dr Erin Godecke (post-doctoral research
fellow) and Prof Beth Armstrong are
leading Australia’s largest clinical trial in
aphasia rehabilitation in stroke, the Very
Early Rehabilitation in SpEech (VERSE)
project. This trial is the first of its kind in
Australia and will investigate the efficacy
and cost-effectiveness of very early
aphasia therapy in stroke recovery.
The
VERSE project
will assess the effects
of intensive therapy at 12 weeks and 26
weeks post-stroke.
In describing the VERSE project, Dr
Godecke explains that one of the
questions being asked is how intense
early speech pathology service should
be. Dr Godecke and Prof Armstrong
are acutely aware that the demands on
hospital therapists are already more than
their capacity, making it crucial that the
efficacy of more therapy is proven before
it is prescribed.
The VERSE clinical trial is being
conducted in 12 sites across Australia,
involving a national collaboration over
three years. Recruitment for the trial will
begin in early 2014 and will continue
for two years before the results are
published internationally.
The second project involves Professor
Armstrong leading a team of WA
researchers in exploring the experiences
of Aboriginal people living with an
acquired communication disorder
(ACD) after stroke and traumatic brain
injury.
The Missing Voices project
is
a collaboration between Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal researchers and involves
six sites across WA including rural,
remote and urban centres.
Aboriginal people are known to have
a higher incidence of both stroke and
traumatic brain injury than non-Aboriginal
people, are more likely to be more
dependent at discharge from hospital,
are less likely to receive allied health
assessments in the early days after
admission, and are rarely seen for long-
term rehabilitation by speech pathologists.
With virtually no existing research in the
area of communication disorder, the
project aims to document what the journey
of an Aboriginal person with an ACD might
actually look like, and to explore new
service delivery models that are culturally
appropriate and accessible. Interviews
will be held with both health professionals
and Aboriginal people with ACD and their
families and these are currently underway
in Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, Albany and Perth,
with more taking place in the northern
regions of WA later this year.
The project will also further explore the
scale of the problem through use of the
WA Linked Data set which will examine
admissions to hospital in six different
sites, diagnosis of communication
disorder, and involvement of speech
pathology services. This data will be
complemented by information gained
from descriptive file audits at each site.
A culturally appropriate communication
disorder screening tool is also
being developed to support better
identification of acquired communication
disorders in Aboriginal people. Extensive
consultation with Aboriginal and non-
Aboriginal health workers has been
undertaken, and the piloting of the tool
will take place this year.
It’s been a busy few years at Edith
Cowan. As the Speech Pathology team
grows, we look to the future which
will involve both exciting research and
curriculum developments.
MEAGHAN M
c
ALLISTER
Research Project Coordinator
The VERSE
and Missing
Voices
projects
From left, Beth Armstrong and Erin Godecke.
