Better Conversation with Primary Progressive Aphasia: What people want and how we can deliver it to help them live better for longer.

Dr Anna Volkmer, Associate Professor in the Department of Language and Cognition at UCL and an Honorary Consultant Speech and Language Therapist at NHNN.  

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) describes a group of language led dementias where language is the primary and leading difficulty that progresses over time. PPA is associated with Alzheimer's and Frontotemporal dementia. The main treatment for PPA is speech and language therapy. Around the world people affected by PPA have identified improving participation in conversations with family and friends as the main thing they want to change about their lives with PPA. This talk will provide an overview of our program of research co-developing a communication partner training intervention (Better Conversation with PPA- BCPPA ) for people with PPA and their families. Initial findings from two NHS embedded randomised controlled trials and implications for future practice will be discussed