Project Summaries - Research that supports the inclusion of people with little or no speech

Communication and the Community

The Bridging Project

This project aims to build bridges between specialist and community providers of mental health services in relation to people with complex communication needs and to provide information to all relevant stakeholders.

The project has produced a number of resources including counseling guidelines for community counseling practitioners, an accessible booklet on grief and loss, and accessible fact sheets covering a range of mental health topics. Further information on this project is available at www.bridgingproject.org.au. This project is being undertaken by Scope in collaboration with the Centre for Developmental Disability Health Victoria, Monash University.

A number of national and international conference presentations have been made.

Inclusion of people with disabilities in counselling and decision making using a graduated multi-level communication system

The aim of this project is to develop and pilot a communication system that can be used by counsellors when working with people with complex communication needs. The first stage of this project involves a literature review and initial trailing of vocabulary items. The literature review has revealed the importance of providing opportunities for people with little or no speech to be more self-directed in conversations important to them, such as in relation to the planning and the making of decisions about their life and supports, and strategies to support this objective.

The first stage of this project has been funded by the Winifred & John Webster Trust Fund.

Communicating Pain

This project arose from a Scope survey of staff regarding the perceived health issues of clients which, amongst other things, found that staff were concerned about their capacity to identify and respond to pain of people with complex communication needs. Research has shown that the detection, assessment and treatment of pain in people with disabilities who do not use speech present a range of challenges. In particular, a gap exists in the research regarding relevant tools that can be used by disability support workers to effectively identify and address pain issues for people with communication difficulties. This project examines the issues facing people who are unable to use speech to express their experience of pain. The research will identify how existing pain identification tools can be modified to be of relevance to people who do not communicate formally, and provide information about the reliability of these tools, as well as practice strategies for support workers.

The project is funded by The Winifred and John Webster Charitable Trust (as managed by Perpetual Trustees) and the Lord Mayor’s Fund.

Determining the role of communication in social networks of adults who are nonlinguistic communicators. Hilary Johnson, PhD Thesis

This grounded theory study is being undertaken as part of a La Trobe University PhD.  Social networks are important for maintaining mental and physical health and little is known about the social networks of adults with severe intellectual disability  The aim of the study is to develop a theory to explain how communication is initiated and maintained, with whom and the role communication plays in maintaining a social network.  

Listening to those rarely heard

The Listening to those rarely heard project aims to develop and promote an approach to supported decision making for people who do not communicate formally. It also aims to develop robustly tested resources that can be used to facilitate best practice in supported decision making. In particular, the project involves the development of a Supported Decision Making training package that recognises the role and status of the individual as a central driver of their own decision making and concurrently the role of the support network in enhancing the person’s independence and self-determination.

Elements of this project are funded through the Office of the Senior Practitioner’s PhD Scholarship Program (scholarship to be undertaken in partnership with Deakin University), as well as the Victorian Department of Human Services. 

Experiences of adults in using non electronic communication aids

A Non-Electronic Communication Aid Scheme (NECAS) is available for adults with complex communication needs in Victoria. This project will explore (a) communication experiences both before and after the NECAS request was received, particularly in terms of communication participation, self-determination and self advocacy; (b) their role in and experience of the request process as well as access to other communication services; and (c) their perspectives on how various services could be used to enhance their individual outcomes.

This project is funded by the Department of Human Services.

Behaviours of Concern and Communication

Collaboration in the Development of Behavioural Social Stories

This project examines the effectiveness of behavioural social stories to reduce behaviours of concern and restrictive practices. Social stories are commonly used to describe and explain social situations or concepts to individuals in a supportive, clear and easily understood manner. The project concurrently examines the extent to which behaviour support plans are being implemented in residential and day services, and the barriers and enablers to effective behaviour support planning, as identified by disability support workers.

This project is a partnership with the Centre for Disability and Developmental Health Victoria and is funded through the Office of the Senior Practitioner, Department of Human Services.

Effective Communication in Behaviour Support

This project is designed to build enduring foundations for effective communication for Victorians with behaviours of concern subject to restrictive interventions.  The project’s aims are to:

• Develop a resource kit to support assessment and intervention in relation to communication and behaviours of concern;
• Increase the capacity of speech pathologists in this area through a combination of ‘train the trainer’, collaborative consultation models, and the development of communities of practice; 
• Explore the effectiveness of implementation of communication assessment and intervention at the services level.

The project is funded through the Office of the Senior Practitioner, Department of Human Services.

View our Foundations for Effective Communication resources in the Behaviours of Concern area of our Resource Centre.