Secondment to Royal London Hospital

Anna Caute, researcher on CommuniCATE, is currently located at the Royal London Hospital in Tower Hamlets, part of Barts Health NHS Trust. In keeping with the ethos of the Community Stroke Team where she is based, she visits participants in their own homes to carry out assessments and therapy. The aims of the secondment are to:

• Disseminate the CommuniCATE methods, through training and joint working
• Trial the CommuniCATE therapies in an NHS setting and explore potential barriers, e.g. using Skype
• Trial the CommuniCATE technological approaches with people who do not meet the main project’s recruitment criteria, e.g. those who are not fluent users of English or who have severe cognitive impairments.

Anna has seen six participants in Tower Hamlets, who have taken part in all the different strands of the project. She has delivered training for the Community Stroke, Speech and Language Therapy and Acute Stroke teams. She is currently working with a rehabilitation support worker and a speech and language therapist, to deliver supported conversation over Skype for a gentleman who has severely impaired cognition.