Aphasia rehabilitation in India: A preliminary survey of speech language pathologists

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the issues speech-language pathologists (SLPs) face in the rehabilitation of people with aphasia (PwA) in India. A survey questionnaire was distributed to 540 SLPs through e-mail. Among 437 survey recipients, 61 SLPs participated in the study. The questionnaire explored various ‘client-related’ and ‘clinician-related’ issues in the rehabilitation of PwA in addition to the sections that gleaned into the clinician and therapy characteristics, and finally the SLPs’ concerns toward aphasia rehabilitation. The major ‘client-related’ issues highlighted were: poor economic status, distant therapy centres, poor family support and subjects’ motivation, associated problems (e.g. hemiplegia), acute stage, lack of awareness about aphasia and its management in the common public. The main ‘clinician-related’ issues were the lack of adequate time for rehabilitation and the general inefficiency of the therapy techniques. More importantly, the survey stressed on the lack of basic epidemiological research on aphasia in India. Being a preliminary survey of first in its kind, the study revealed several basic issues in the rehabilitation of PwA confronted by SLPs in India.