Aphasia Awareness Among Spiritual Healthcare Providers in the United States

Abstract

Spiritual healthcare providers (e.g., chaplains) working in healthcare settings across the United States were surveyed with the goals of (1) understanding their awareness of aphasia (a language disorder affecting reading, writing, verbal communication, and auditory comprehension); (2) determining whether they have received any training in aphasia and what type of training has been received; (3) whether they altered their approach to assessing the spiritual well-being of a person with aphasia; and, (4) what tools were used to augment communication. From a convenience sample of 203 respondents, the results indicated that 96% of respondents had previously heard of aphasia and 85% of respondents correctly identified the definition of aphasia. Seventy-three percent of respondents (N = 128) altered their approach to spiritual well-being assessment due to the aphasia diagnosis. Most respondents did not indicate receiving any formal training related to aphasia.