Journal Reviews
Enhanced recovery following surgery for head and neck cancer – the current evidence
Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programmes are now well established in many surgical specialities as a means of reducing postoperative complications and length of stay in hospital. Whilst many head and neck teams have interventions used to aid postoperative recovery,...
Remembering how to speak
Reminiscence therapy (RT) is an approach that provides people with dementia opportunities to recount nostalgic memories and access thoughts for communication. It is one of the most commonly used therapies in aged care settings. The aim of RT is to...
Mental practice could be a great COVID-19 solution for delivering swallow rehab
Motor imagery is defined as the process of voluntarily generating a mental image of a motor function without actually doing said function. Mental practice (MP) is the process of doing this repeatedly; practising it. There is some evidence that this...
What do SLTs do in palliative care?
The authors of this article highlight that the number of older people has increased significantly in the last two decades, and the number of people over 85 has doubled in Australia since 1996. They attribute this to improved lifestyle factors...
Planning for the long term when working with young people with TBI
Traumatic brain injuries are most common amongst young people and can have long term consequences. The authors of this article provide an approach to management of cognitive and communication difficulties which starts with a detailed assessment using the model of...
What the people want and need: emerging service for communication needs in Ghana
There is a significant shortfall in rehabilitation service for people with communication difficulties across Majority World countries. It is known that many people in these countries are likely to seek help from a variety of sectors including western healthcare, religious...
Doing it for the men: diversifying the speech and language therapy profession
It is known that many health professions are dominated by females, particularly the allied health professions, such as speech and language therapy. This is more pronounced in the US than in the UK, Australia and other countries. The authors of...
Counting up discourse
Speech and language researchers and health professionals alike strive to measure communication abilities using relevant and psychometrically sound tools. Discourse measures are potential tools which reflect everyday communication more accurately than other more traditional measures. However, time has been a...
Back to the future: aphasia therapy post stroke
When speech and language therapist first started working with people with stroke-related aphasia, they employed a general stimulation approach, the same with every patient they met. In the '70s this changed, and a more tailored approach was developed whereby therapists...
Bright young things: executive functioning in younger, older and aphasic people
Executive function comprises several higher order cognitive processes such as planning, organisation, adaptation, maintenance, monitoring and decision making. It is thought that difficulties in cognitive flexibility in people with aphasia are associated with difficulties in executive function rather than the...
Doing it for the people: how to do speech and language therapy
This review article distils 58 studies, collating information from people with aphasia, their families and clinical speech and language therapists summarising the seven habits of highly effective aphasia therapists. Habit 1: Effective therapists invest time in and prioritise relationships with...
More than words: looking at all the evidence
Evidence based practice (EBP) is a three-pillared approach whereby information on the research evidence, factors relating to the patient and clinical experience are all considered to inform a care decision. Unfortunately, there is frequently very little research evidence to inform...
