Synthesising communication strategies for people with acquired brain injury and their communication partners

Communication partner training improves communication outcomes for individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) and their families. However, nearly 60% of UK speech and language therapists (SLTs) do not deliver training aligned with best practice, and less than 20% use established programmes such as TBI Express. Giving information about effective communication strategies is considered important training content for more than 86% of SLTs. Therefore, this study aimed to use existing training programmes to identify key communication strategies for training. First, more than 200 strategies were extracted from three existing training programmes (TBI Express, TBI Express-Adapted and TBIconneCT). Next, these strategies were iteratively synthesised by two independent raters (over seven rounds) to 40 specific strategies grouped into six categories (ask questions; make comments; take turns; organise, summarise and check; help keep it going; work together). This synthesis has led to the creation of a clinical decision making tool for identifying appropriate strategies for different communication profiles of people with ABI, and their communication partners. This study was completed as part of a larger project aimed at co-designing an adapted form of training for SLTs in the UK.