Information about Speech and Language Therapy for carers and family members

The therapy journey will begin with an initial assessment, so that we can establish where the individual / your loved one is now with their communication strengths and needs, to provide a baseline so that we can track changes and improvements over time. The therapist will guide you on how much input they might need from you during the assessment process or how you can help facilitate a successful assessment. As part of the initial assessment the therapist will help the individual to work out exactly what they want to get out of the therapy process, your collaboration and ideas may be very useful at this stage in helping us work out what is most important to them. This is their therapy journey and it’s essential that we work on the things that matter most to them.

When therapy begins we may need to work out together how the individual can access the therapy as independently as possible and what support you may need to provide along the way to maximise the effectiveness of their therapy. Once we have identified clear goals that reflect exactly what they want to achieve and where they want to get to, we will start working through the steps to get there, together. The client and their therapist will agree homework activities to do in between sessions, to help them work towards their goals. Your involvement and support is likely to be required with this and it can often be helpful to involve friends, colleagues and family members as well.