clinical focus
Speak up
The role of speech pathology and communication in aged care .
Danica Dalton interviewed by Conor Burke
As we grow older , communication
skills can deteriorate – whether as a result of hearing loss , speech fluency or physical health – and an estimated 1.2 million Australians live with a communication disability .
Communication has been forefront of the minds of aged care residents and providers alike during the COVID-19 pandemic , and the ability to communicate as a basic human right is often taken for granted .
Speech Pathology Australia believes that those with communication disabilities often suffer in silence as their symptoms are mostly unseen and out of sight , and this is exacerbated as we age .
Speech pathologist Danica Dalton spoke with Aged Care Insite about communication disabilities and what aged
20 agedcareinsite . com . au care providers can do to improve the lives of residents .
ACI : What ’ s the definition of a communication disability ? DD : I think a communication disability is anything that really impairs a person ’ s opportunity to communicate with others , whether that ’ s their family , friends , people out in the community – it doesn ’ t necessarily have to be as a result of a severe medical diagnosis .
It can be something more common like a hearing impairment . So that can be a communication disability , particularly if someone hasn ’ t received appropriate hearing support , or it can be something more severe that impacts a person ’ s ability to put together words , find the right way to put speech together , to make those sounds come together .
What effect does ageing have on communication ? We have changes in communication .
There ’ s usually a range of comorbidities that are occurring at the same time . You might have a bit of a hearing impairment . There are age-related changes that occur to the voice as well , so they can become quieter , and it ’ s sometimes harder to project .
So you ’ ve got those considerations , as well as other communication partners who potentially have hearing impairments or other concerns in their ability to attend to information . There could be background noise and the person that is speaking might also have difficulty recalling information to be able to put that in a sentence to convey information , or it may be that they struggled to find some words here and there and the information that they convey isn ’ t necessarily concise or precise . They might have difficulty retaining large chunks of information . It might be that the key information you wanted someone to get from your statement might not actually be the information that they retain from what is being told to them .