Improvement in psychological well-being of people with aphasia and their families: Evaluation of a community-based programme

The York-Durham Aphasia Centre comprises a community-based programme for people with aphasia and their families. It offers long-term support and service at any time post-stroke or head injury. This evaluation focused on improvement in psychosocial well-being in the clients and their family members as a measure of programme effectiveness. Trained programme volunteers administered Ryff's Psychological Well-being Scale to 35 clients twice, at 6 months apart. Twelve family members also self-administered the scale twice. Voluuteers handled the administration well, and aphasic clients were able to complete the scale with little difficulty. Both clients and family members showed positive change in five of six dimensions of psychological well-being. This improvement in both groups may be related to the direct attention the programmes give to psychosocial well-being and communication, the overall environment of the centre, and the test administration itself. The positive change in these aphasic clients of varying ages and time post-stroke means that imporovement in psychological well-being is possible regardless of time post-stroke and age. There are important implications for health and social service system planning, and more specifically for programme planning for people with aphasia and their families.