Volume 15, Number 1, Spring 2020

COVID-19 and the Mad Dash to Telepractice: A Tutorial to Establish Community-Based Telerehabilitation for Aphasia Using WebEx Videoconferencing

AUTHOR(S):

• Charles Ellis Jr., PhD, CCC-SLP, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA
• Patrick Briley, PhD, CCC-SLP, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA
• Robert Mayo, PhD, CCC-SLP, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA

ABSTRACT

Telepractice is an approach that has been used successfully to treat acute stroke in individuals residing in rural communities. Yet until very recently, progress in the use of telepractice approaches for aphasia has been slow to emerge. However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has forced the field of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) to Rapidly develop and implement new models of service provision and particularly in the area of aphasia rehabilitation. A wealth of research has shown that telepractice approaches for aphasia rehabilitation or “telerehabilitation” can be utilized to provide evidenced-based treatment for aphasia while overcoming access to care issues for individuals with aphasia. Such approaches have never been so urgently needed given the dramatically changing landscape in field of SLP since the emergence of COVID-19 in the US. In this tutorial we describe the use of WebEx, a videoconferencing program, as one potential approach to provide comprehensive aphasia telerehabilitation treatment in a community-based setting.

DOI:

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