Singing for People With Aphasia (SPA)

Beyond language function, people with aphasia (PWA) report a range of health problems which negatively affect wellbeing, including reduced confidence and social isolation. These psychosocial outcomes of aphasia are not sufficiently met by healthcare services: improvements in language function do not appear to lead to improvements in wellbeing. National clinical guidelines for stroke reflect this observation and highlight the need for community integration and participation of people with aphasia. This research is about singing groups for people with aphasia (SPA) and is intended to address this need by focusing on the wellbeing and social participation needs of people with aphasia after stroke.

The Investigators engagement activities and early development project provided strong impetus for the proposed study: people with aphasia repeatedly told the investigators that singing in groups may help the participants to reconnect with society, and that this will improve wellbeing.

The investigators have planned a pilot study that will allow an assessment of the extent to which the study processes and the singing groups themselves are feasible to run and are acceptable to participants. The information from this work will help the investigators to decide whether to conduct a larger randomised controlled trial (RCT) which would be a fair test of whether SPA can improve the lives of individuals with post stroke aphasia.