Current Clinical Practices in Aphasia Therapy in Finland: Challenges in Moving towards National Best Practice

Aims: The objective of this article is to discover and document the state of clinical practices for aphasia therapy in Finland and to gather information for developing national best practice. Methods: Two surveys were administered in Finland that explored current clinical practices in aphasia rehabilitation and the resources available to speech and language therapists (SLTs). We integrated and compared the results of these surveys. The results are based on the responses of the 88 (45 + 43) returned questionnaires from SLTs. Results: Four principle themes were identified: planning the aphasia therapy, measures and assessment methods, current therapy service provision, and development suggestions and barriers to change. The results of this study showed considerable consistency in clinical practices among the respondents to the surveys. However, we noticed that there are some discrepancies between the recent research findings and present clinical practices. Conclusions: The findings from this study indicate that there are many challenges in clinical decision-making at the moment in Finland. The article helps clinicians to evaluate the practices they use and to execute justified modifications in order to implement more effective models of practice. It is evident that national best practice guidelines for aphasia therapy would support SLTs in clinical decision- making. Copyright (C) 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel