“Doing the Best I Can”: Qualitative Outcomes and Participant Feedback From a Combined Communication and Counselling Treatment for Primary Progressive Aphasia

What is already known on this subject People with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) often experience a negative impact on their emotional well-being and quality of life. While preliminary research indicates that these individuals may benefit from personal-adjustment counselling, research is limited pertaining to psychosocial approaches in PPA. Thus, additional research is warranted to investigate the benefit, acceptability and feasibility of these interventions. What this paper adds to existing knowledge Preliminary qualitative results provide evidence that a novel treatment approach comprising communication-focused intervention and aphasia-modified cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) results in positive psychosocial outcomes amongst nine individuals with heterogeneous PPA presentations. Participant-generated feedback following treatment supports the acceptability of this combined intervention. Individuals reported satisfaction with the intervention overall and recognized the value of engaging in a program that aims to optimize both communication and emotional well-being. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Speech-language therapists/pathologists may consider incorporating counselling approaches to optimize a person with PPA's emotional health and holistically meet patient needs. Aphasia-modified CBT, provided by a speech-language therapist/pathologist, requires further investigation to ultimately determine the clinical utility of this approach.