Journal Reviews
Remote living: can we learn anything about telehealth use during the pandemic in Australia?
Healthcare services in Australia have been using telehealth to reach remote areas for many years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is estimated that 10% of the Australian population have no access to primary healthcare within a 60-minute drive. This...
Four lessons: the development of speech and language therapy research for people with dementia care
Dementia has been described as the biggest expanded caseload for speech and language therapists. Everyone with dementia experiences communication difficulties. The late Prof Audrey Holland revolutionised the work of speech-language pathologists in this field through four key lessons. Lesson 1:...
Effect of swallowing exercises following free flap for oral cancer reconstruction
This paper from Beijing looked at 68 patients, 34 in a control group and 34 in an intervention group. Oral exercise training was performed by a specialist swallowing nurse in the intervention group. They found that personalised oral exercises had...
Lonely, so lonely
The pandemic has evidenced the negative mental and physical health outcomes that are associated with isolation and loneliness. This study was undertaken in Australia, where one quarter of the population live alone. Giving our ageing population worldwide, the number of...
Cascading communication skills to help children with autism
Inadequate workforce resource is an ongoing difficulty across the health professions. This study proposes a train the trainer model, with the ultimate goal of improving the communication skills of children with autism. The study describes an intervention called naturalistic developmental...
Strengthen your communication: better conversations can reduce the risk of frailty
Our population is ageing and, with this, the incidence of frailty is increasing. Frailty is defined as increased vulnerability to stressors resulting in adverse outcomes. Stressors can include communication and swallowing difficulties, yet these are poorly recognised. Management of communication...
The hidden dementia in motor neurone disease
It is now well recognised that people with motor neurone disease (also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) are at risk of developing frontotemporal dementia. It can be difficult to recognise the symptoms of cognitive decline in this group due to...
Storytelling is good for your memory
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) presents a challenging frontier in healthcare due to the limited availability of effective drugs. Despite its prevalence and potential progression to dementia, there remains a notable gap in pharmacological interventions targeting MCI. This month’s Editors’ Choice...
Feel what you say: a framework to demonstrate the emotional response to aphasia is intertwined with the emotional toll
The authors start this paper by flagging a recent study demonstrating that speech and language therapists in clinical practice rarely have time to focus on emotional issues in relation to aphasia. Yet, people with aphasia describe the close relationship between...
How much does it cost to simulate speech and language therapy placements?
The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists report that 20% of speech and language therapy positions are unfilled in the UK. Consequently, there is an urgent need to offer as many training courses as possible to fill these gaps....
Parkinson’s humour: recognising social communication difficulties
Parkinson’s results in a progressive motor disease with symptoms including tremor, rigidity and bradykinesia. However, people with Parkinson’s also experience non-motor symptoms such as cognitive difficulties that can impact social communication, often due to their co-existing speech difficulties, auditory and...
Factors associated with laryngopharyngeal reflux
This Chinese cross-sectional survey across three hospitals and 320 patients looked at the effect of unhealthy lifestyles and eating habits, as well as psychological difficulties, on the development of laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR). All the participants underwent gastroscopy, laryngoscopy and various...
