JCPSLP Vol 17 No 2 2015

www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

JCPSLP

Volume 17, Number 2 2015

Participants

All group participants, carers and volunteers associated

with the Fremantle Communication Group were invited to

participate in the study. Four group participants and four

family carers of participants from the Fremantle

Communication Group (unrelated to each other) gave

written consent to participate in the study using plain

English and/or aphasia-friendly materials. Participants were

aged between 45 and 75 years with a range of diagnoses

following brain injury, mainly stroke (see Table 1). Three

participants had mild to moderate aphasia while the fourth

participant had a moderate ataxic dysarthria. They had

attended the group for between 1 and 10 years. The carers

interviewed were aged between 48 and 65 years and had

been associated with the group for between 1 and 12

years. Carers did not attend the weekly group but were

included in order to explore their experiences of the

participants’ attendance at the group.

Procedure

All participants completed a semi-structured interview

conducted in their own homes or at a suitable location

selected by them. The interview involved a series of topics

relating to their involvement in the group, such as (a) their

motivation for attendance or their family member’s

attendance; (b) how the group functions, in particular, in

relation to the volunteers; and (c) the impact of the group

on their own and their family members’ lives. The

participants were not directly asked to provide their view on

what they thought contributed to the success of the group

or to assess the influence of the speech pathologist’s

involvement. These topic areas provided a guide for the

interviewer whereby the interviewer could stray from the

protocol or delve further into particular issues when

deemed appropriate. Each interview was between 30 and

45 minutes, using principles set out by Luck and Rose

(2007) for interviewing people with aphasia, and framed by

supported conversation techniques (Kagan, 1998). The

interviews were conducted by a SLP student who was

provided with training through practice interviews and

feedback, and recorded digitally and transcribed verbatim

and orthographically by the interviewer (Onwuegbuzie &

Leech, 2007). Members of the research team checked 10%

of the interview data for transcription accuracy against the

audio-files to ensure the transcriptions were an accurate

record of the discussion.

Data analysis

Thematic analysis is an approach used to recognize and

report themes within a data set (Braun & Clarke, 2006).

Using NVivo9, the process for this study followed the

a volunteer-led charity, the organisation oversaw, at the time

of the study, two community conversation-based groups

(identified here as group 1 and group 2) in metropolitan

Perth, led either by volunteers or by members with

communication impairment. Of these groups, only group

one had been considered successful as evidenced by its

continual recruitment, and attendance of regular members,

over nearly a 13-year period; 82 people had attended the

group during this time (attendance averaged two to three

years, ranging from one session to 12 years) while group 2

faced dissolution at the time of the study. Both groups were

volunteer led and had been set up with initial funding by the

Rotary Health Foundation. One difference lay, however, in

the regular, low-intensity speech-language pathology (SLP)

involvement that had been maintained in group 1 and not

the other. The SLP involvement was in a voluntary capacity,

eventually coming under the umbrella of Communicate WA.

With the charity exploring the viability of setting up further

groups throughout the same geographical region, a model

which suited local conditions was needed and an analysis

of the critical success factors was undertaken to explore

which specific factors underpinned the success of the

group and, in particular, the extent to which SLP

involvement was regarded as critical. The group, known as

the Fremantle Communication Group, has met weekly since

its inception with the SLP attending monthly throughout this

period. The role of the SLP focused on volunteer training,

along with active promotion of established communication

frameworks, e.g., Supported conversation for adults with

aphasia (SCA; Kagan, 1998) where volunteers are trained in

communicative strategies and have appropriate materials

available to support this, and “total communication” where

all communication methods are facilitated. Additionally, the

SLP provided information on the communicative skill level

of each new member in liaison with local health services.

Aims of the study

This study aimed to examine the communication group

experiences of group participants and their carers to

identify which factors have contributed to the success and

longevity of the Fremantle Communication Group. This

process sought to facilitate reflection on how these factors

might generalise to other contexts/groups with the view to

informing a sustainable model for further communication

groups. Integral to this aim was the need to isolate the

contribution of the professional support, identifying to what

extent this was critical and, if so, which components.

Method

Ethics approval was received from the Human Research

Ethics Committee at Curtin University (SPSP 2011/49).

Melanie Breese

(top), Louise

Cato (centre) and

Jade Cartwright

Table 1. Characteristics of participants with communication impairment and carers

Participants with communication impairment

Carers

Participant

Age

Gender

Diagnosis

Mild aphasia Mild aphasia Mod/sev aphasia Ataxic dysarthria

Years post onset

2 ½

Time (months)

involved with group