ABSTRACT
Purpose:
to analyze the knowledge of professionals that work in the long-term care institutions for the elderly about Augmentative and Alternative Communication.
Methods:
across-sectional and contemporary study was conducted. The sample was composed by active healthcare professionals of long-term care institutions for the elderly, accredited by the Conselho Municipal do Idoso in the city of Caxias do Sul - Rio Grande do Sul. A 14 objective and multiple choice questions questionnaire, including personal, academic, practice and knowledge with Augmentative and Alternative Communication was administered. The variables were described by absolute and relative frequencies and to cross variables with the professionals knowledge on the Augmentative and Alternative Communication acting in the long term care institutions for the elderly, the qui-square Pearson method or the Fisher method were used (when at least one of the categories had less than 5 participants). In the case of polytomous variables, the residual adjustment test was used to complement these analyses and identify the association between the categories. The significance level adopted was 5% (p≤0,05).
Results:
from the 60 professionals recruited, 40 had knowledge of Augmentative and Alternative Communication and 20 did not. There was a statistical significant association for the formation variables (p=0,02), the presence of individuals with difficulties of comprehension in the acting institution (p=0,01) and the presence of individuals users of Augmentative and Alternative Communication in their acting institution (p=0,04).
Conclusion:
the majority of professionals that work in long term care institutions for the elderly have knowledge of Augmentative and Alternative Communication.
Keywords:
Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences; Aged; Communication; Self-Help Devices
