Heather Barnett

AN EVALUATION OF THE KEEP ON TALKING PROGRAM FOR MAINTAINING COMMUNICATION SKILLS INTO OLD AGE

Communication skills change with age as a result of sensory deficits, memory loss, and increasing word finding difficulties. The Keep on Talking program (L. Hickson, H. Barnett, L. Worrall, & E. Yiu, 1994) was developed to assist older people to develop their own strategies for maintaining communication skills into old age. Two hundred and fifty‐two healthy older people were recruited from the community and were assessed on a battery of communication assessments on entry to the study and at 1 year after entry. The experimental group (n = 120) participated in the 5‐week group Keep on Talking program run by volunteers. A further 130 control subjects were assessed only. The short‐term effectiveness of the program was evaluated using a short knowledge based and attitudinal questionnaire and qualitative written feedback. At the 1‐year follow up, subjects were also asked whether they had taken any action as a result of the project. Results concluded that there was a significant difference between the number of ...

The performance of older people on everyday visual asks

The participation rates and performance of 100 elderly subjects on everyday visual tasks were investigated. The Everyday Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (ELNA), which is based on the scenario of going to die doctor and includes 16 real‐life tasks, was used to assess performance on reading and writing tasks. More than 50 per cent of the subjects, had some difficulty with 10 of the 16 items on die ELNA, and 20 per cent of subjects were rated as performing inadequately on the ELNA. Small but significant correlations were found between years of schooling and ELNA score, and examiners ratings of vision, co‐ordination and mental ability and ELNA score. Results suggest that a significant proportion of people over die age of 60 have difficulties using everyday printed material. The optometrist should play a larger role within community and wider gerontology teams in assessing everyday visual disability and handicap. In addition, optometrists have an important role in raising community awareness of the visual needs of the elderly.

Hearing and vision impairment and the social networks of older Australians

Two hundred and forty self‐selected community‐based older people were tested for vision and hearing acuity, and reported on their hearing and vision difficulties and social networks. Social network size, proximity and frequency of contacts were used as dependent variables in the analysis of the effects of any sensory loss on social structure. Neither objectively measured sensory loss nor self‐reported sensory difficulties were associated with significant changes to network size, however, people with sensory losses were found to have more intense networks with fewer contacts outside their immediate inner circle.

PLANNING A COMMUNICATION EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR OLDER PEOPLE

Nominal group technique (Delbecq, Van de Ven, & Gustafson, 1975) was used with seven groups of elderly people and two groups of professionals who work with the aged to determine the communication difficulties that community‐based older people experience and to determine appropriate content for a proposed education program. The older people perceived that their most significant communication problems were hearing difficulties, memory loss, and word retrieval difficulties. The health and welfare professionals had different perceptions about the communication problems of the elderly. Nominal group technique proved to be a valuable tool for identifying the communication needs of the elderly and for developing a health promotion program.