Evaluating communication for resident participation in an aged care facility

Speech pathologists who work in aged care facilities are often challenged to find appropriate measures of communication that consider the frailty of residents and the policy environment that speech pathologists are required to work within. This article describes a process for evaluating resident participation in an aged care facility (ACF) using the framework of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). It also presents the findings of this process from one ACF, a 60-bed high care facility. Assessments of individual resident's communication impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions were conducted initially, followed by evaluations of the physical and social communication environment of the facility. At the individual level, residents were found to have a high prevalence of communication impairments and reported activity limitations and participation restrictions associated with these. The environmental assessments identified that residents had few opportunities to communicate, and that the physical and social environment was not conducive to communication. This study supports many others that have found a high prevalence of communication disabilities in residents of ACFs. It also confirms that the communication environment is not conducive to participation and recommends assessments for identifying both resident and facility-wide communication problems.