Effectiveness of an aphasia training module presented to mental health professionals

People with stroke-induced aphasia are often limited in communication effectiveness and efficiency because of their language disorder. Such limitations can have drastic impacts on these individual’s quality of life and mental health. Given the myriad of post-stroke complications that can occur, management of aphasia follows an interdisciplinary approach involving a team of medical and rehabilitation professionals. Logically, this team would also include mental health professionals; however, mental health providers are not always prepared to work with people with aphasia or their families. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of aphasia training provided to those in the mental health fields. The training module consisted of a 15-minute video training and pre/post-assessments to measure knowledge gained. The aphasia-training module addressed five areas: the clinical definition of aphasia, it’s classifications, depression related to aphasia, communication strategies that enable effective and efficient communication, and cognitive behavioral therapy. Immediately before and after watching the video module, participants completed a short, multiple-choice quiz related to the content covered.Twenty-one participants completed all components of the study; these participants included graduate students, faculty, and alumni of a university counseling program. A significant increase in performance on the post-training test compared to the pre-training test indicated that the video training module was effective in increasing mental health professional’s knowledge about aphasia (t (20)= -5.934; p= .000). An increased knowledge of aphasia and strategies to facilitate communication with this population via a video training module may translate into more frequent and effective opportunities to receive counseling for mental health concerns, hopefully improving functional outcomes and QOL post-aphasia