Background: Laryngectomy is a pivotal event in patients. lives, with pervasive and far-reaching effects. Understanding gender differences in these effects may improve care of laryngectomy patients. This paper describes gender differences in the experience after laryngectomy. Aim: To explore the similarities and differences in the laryngectomee…

Background: Acquired laryngotracheal stenosis (LTS) is a rare condition that causes breathlessness and dyspnoea. Patients have reconstructive airway surgery to improve their breathing difficulties, but both LTS and the surgery can cause voice difficulties. The existing evidence base for management of voice difficulties for adults with LTS focuses…

Background: Engagement is recognized as an important factor in aphasia treatment response and outcomes, yet gaps remain in our understanding of engagement and practices that promote engagement from the client perspective. Aims: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how clients with aphasia experience engagement during their…

Background: Artificial nutrition and hydration (AN&H) may be provided to individuals in the home environment, and family caregivers are often involved in the management of this intervention. This experience can have multiple consequences for families. Aims: The aim of this meta-ethnography is to explore and synthesize the personal experiences…

Background: People who have communication difficulties may benefit from using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Understanding and measuring outcomes from the use of AAC is an important part of evaluating the impact of devices and services. Outcome measurement needs to reflect the changing nature of the impact of using AAC on an…

Background: Speech-language therapists and audiologists (SLT&As) may encounter difficulties when confronted with patient death and dying, which may conflict with their moral beliefs and result in moral injury. Furthermore, South African SLT&As practice in a country with a high mortality rate, which may add to the complexity of their…

Background: People with communication problems experience challenges in participation. Optimizing communicative participation for this population is an important outcome of speech and language therapy. Participation experiences are best assessed from the patient's perspective, using a patient-reported outcome measure (PROM). The Communicative…

Purpose: Communicative participation poses a challenge in meetings between healthcare professionals (HCPs) and people with aphasia (PwA). How communication is affected by aphasia in group meetings, where several healthcare professionals participate together with the patient, is largely unexplored. The aim of this study was to investigate…

Background: Exploring the perceptions of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) towards their brain injury recovery across the continuum of care may offer insights to support engagement with rehabilitation services. Illness narratives are a potentially valuable avenue for examining perceptions of recovery that may influence engagement.…

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in rapid changes to head and neck cancer (HNC) services. Multidisciplinary team (MDT) face-to-face appointments were converted to telehealth appointments (telephone and video-call) to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. The literature exploring HNC patient experience of these appointment types is…

Background: People with post-stroke dysphagia often require informal care from family to facilitate safe swallowing, modify food/drink or administer tube-feeds. Previous survey studies have found dysphagia may increase family caregiver burden. However, the experiences of family members in this population have not been fully explored. Aims: To…

Background: Speech disorders in children with a cleft palate with or without a cleft lip (CP±L) are complex given the magnitude of influencing factors. Providing intervention to eliminate these speech errors is often challenging. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) might have negative perceptions of the treatment of children with a CP±L. Aims: To…

Background: Subjective well-being (SWB) and quality of life (QOL) are intricately related constructs. Recent research shows both constructs share some facets, but are distinct entities. It is unclear, both internationally and in the Netherlands, if and how SLTs address SWB in clinical practice. The current study was set up to explore Dutch SLTs'…

Background: The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2020. The historical study of speech and language therapy (SLT) has been very limited. A small number of publications have traced the changes in the profession over time, but to date there has been no comprehensive work undertaken to gain an…

Background: Speech and language therapists (SLTs) working with dysphagia have had to radically alter diagnostic and rehabilitation services during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, hereafter referred to as coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Given the aerosol-generating procedures inherent in swallow assessment…