Communication partner training for people living with Parkinson’s: Using nominal group technique to reach consensus on desired outcomes

A speech and language therapy intervention, called Communication Partner Training (CPT), has the potential to improve the conversations and everyday lives of people living with Parkinson’s and their communication partners. It is essential to understand what people hope to achieve from Communication Partner Training to drive further intervention and outcome measure development. This research study therefore aims to understand what the desired outcomes of Communication Partner Training are, from the perspectives of people living with Parkinson’s, family members and speech and language therapists. We will investigate this using the nominal group technique, with groups comprising people living with Parkinson’s, communication partners and speech and language therapists. Individual votes from nominal groups will be summed and analysed in terms of weighting to identify priorities for Communication Partner Training intervention from the perspective of each group.