Conversation partners in progress: reports and reflections on the learning experience of students, practitioners and people with aphasia

This symposium will explore different applications of the conversation partner scheme approach to healthcare students, volunteers, and people with aphasia. It will provide a forum for sharing the widely differing applications and extensions of the conversation partner scheme and its potential to contribute to healthcare initiatives, service delivery and clinical education. The three participants are from two universities offering speech and language therapy training and from Connect, the Communication Disability Network and in setting up this symposium we are demonstrating the value of collaborative work drawing together experiences of clinical educators, practitioners, people with aphasia and the voluntary sector. The first paper will describe a study undertaken by the lead discussant into the application of conversation partner training with speech and language therapy students on the Postgraduate Diploma in Speech and Language Therapy run collaboratively by the University of Greenwich and Canterbury Christ Church University. This study set out to explore the impact of this experience on the students’ development of and reflection on their own communication and interaction skills. The study measured the changes in the students’ confidence levels, and describes the stages of the process that the students go through in increased awareness of their own communication skills. The implications for this on further development of student learning will be discussed along with the potential application for inter-professional learning. The second paper explores the potential of Conversation Partner Training to increase activity within the university and the local health economy. At the University of East Anglia the relationship between Conversation Partner Training and the university institution is being developed through a number of related activities, and the paper will examine how this development impacts on group identity and the experiences of stakeholders in the initiative. The study described used exploratory workshops, presentations and facilitated group discussions to develop a group focus and progress group identity. The study reports on work with service users, medical, physiotherapy and occupational therapy students. The third paper explores the impact and learning from working with people with aphasia as volunteer befrienders within the framework of a conversation partner scheme. It reports on a pilot training scheme modelled on the scheme for training conversation partners. It looks at how the training, resources and supervision needed modifying, but with modification how this effectively equipped the volunteers with aphasia to go on and visit others. The paper will draw on the accounts of the volunteers’ experiences and the learning they have shared including ways in which they have supported other people with aphasia to set up similar befriending ventures