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Barwon Health leads the way in Allied Health Research and Translation

Monday, 23 November 2020

Researchers from the Barwon Health Allied Health Research and Translation team continue to lead the field, achieving two publications in scientific journals within a week.

Barwon Health speech pathologists Renee Heard, Hayley Anderson and Chloe Horsted’s research, ‘Exploring the communication experiences of stroke nurses and patients with aphasia in an acute stroke unit’, has been published in the October issue of Speech, Language and Hearing1.

Aphasia is a disorder often caused by stroke that affects a person’s ability to affects to express and understand written and spoken language. The speech pathology-researchers investigated the perceptions of both stroke nurses and patients with aphasia on their experiences of communicating, and identified a series of themes relating to the difficulties recognised by both parties. The research suggested specific strategies, such as tailored Communication Partner Training (CPT) for nurses and better access to a range of communication aids and resources that might contribute to a more communicatively accessible acute hospital environment for patients with aphasia.

Dr Robert Pereira and the Barwon Health Hospital Admission Risk Program (HARP) have been accepted to feature in the December 2020 issue of The Australian Health Review2.  

HARP works in the community to determine patients’ support needs and improve their ability to self-manage their conditions and circumstances. Dr Pereira's publication, ‘Consumer experiences of care coordination for people living with chronic conditions and other complex needs: An inclusive and co-produced research study’, explores consumer experiences of care coordination within HARP. This research begins to address the knowledge gap related to consumer experiences of care coordination, and demonstrates that inclusive, co-design research is feasible in this service context.

Congratulations to these outstanding researchers and their teams; their work both within and outside of the hospital environment will significantly contribute to improving experiences and outcomes for our community and beyond.

Full citations

1. Renee Heard, Hayley Anderson & Chloe Horsted (2020): Exploring the communication experiences of stroke nurses and patients with aphasia in an acute stroke unit. Speech, Language and Hearing. doi=10.1080/2050571X.2020.1833284

2. Pereira, R. B., Brown, T. L., Guida, A., Nolan, M., Oppedisano, L., Riley, K. & Walker, G. (In press). Consumer experiences of care coordination for people living with chronic conditions and other complex needs: An inclusive and co-produced research study. Australian Health Review. https://www.publish.csiro.au/AH/justaccepted/AH20108