Investigation into the Speech Therapy Management of Individuals with Major Neurocognitive Disorder
Claudia Di Pasquale, Fabiola Gaio, Marco Simoni, Donata Gollin
According to the report of the World Health Organization (WHO, 2017) and Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI), major neurocognitive disorder (MNCD) has been identified as a priority for public health globally. In Italy, the total number of people that live with MNCD is estimated to be over 1 million, and the number of caregivers is approximately 3 million. A linguistic impairment characterises all forms of MNCD, hence speech and language pathologists are expected to play a crucial role in the diagnosis and treatment of MNCD. However, there are still many cultural barriers that prevent the access of people affected by MNCD to speech and language therapy (SLT) globally. The aim of this study is to explore the contribution of the speech and language pathologist to the evaluation and admission of the MNCD patient in Italy. We sent an ad-hoc online questionnaire on Google Modules to Italian SLPs, covering 60 provinces. Data were analysed on Excel. 400 Italian SLPs replied to the online questionnaire and the answers indicated: few professional skills were specifically aimed at the evaluation and treatment of MNCD; a lack of a defined pathway for admission of MNCD patients to SLT services; delayed access to SLT after diagnosis; the importance of a multidisciplinary treatment; the usefulness of SLT in MNCD patients; a lack of an adequate academic curriculum to prepare SLPs in this area. This study highlights the need to bring forward the contribution of SLPs to the treatment of MNCD and to develop their academic curriculum on the evaluation and treatment of MNCD patients. This will ensure a timely and appropriate rehabilitation of MNCD patients, which will be suited to the different forms of MNCD and their evolution.
Keywords
Speech and language pathology, Major neurocognitive disorder, Rehabilitation, Alzheimer’s, Dementia.
