Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively influenced the communication, community engagement, and social activities of Persons With Aphasia (PWA) worldwide. One of the most apparent impacts was the significant changes in their receiving of speech therapy (ST) services due to the rapid emergence of telepractice. This study aimed to examine changes of lived experience and access to aphasia-specific ST services among PWA (and caregivers) during different outbreak phases of COVID-19 in Hong Kong. The perception on the quality and effectiveness of these services were also compared between service receivers (i.e. PWA and caregivers) and providers (i.e. speech therapists).

Methods

Semi-structured interviews were conducted involving fifteen PWA (and caregivers), and ten speech therapists. Service receivers were guided to individually report their health-care related, psychosocial, and financial impacts, experiences with changes/constraints in receiving ST services, and perceptions towards the use and efficacy of teletherapy across different phases of the outbreak. Speech therapists were guided to summarize their practice amid the pandemic (with a focus on implementation of telepractice to PWA and clients’ responses to this transition of training mode), and to reflect their perceptions on the effectiveness and limitations of service delivery.

Preliminary results

Preliminary results revealed that the pandemic had reduced PWA’s chances of social gatherings; there was also increased stress level induced by mask wearing and the frequent need to practise good personal hygiene. Moreover, responses from the speech therapist group seemed to indicate a lower perceived efficacy of telepractice to deliver aphasia services. The online platform seemed to be less capable to ensure PWA’s acquisition of new language skills and maintenance of communication.