Family involvement with communication-impaired residents in long-term care settings.

This article describes the outcomes of a study involving family members of communication-impaired long-term care residents in a collaborative nursing/speech language pathology intervention designed to increase the residents' communication ability. Family members provided memorabilia and artifacts or produced audio or video tapes, for use in conjunction with a speech therapy enhancement program (STEP). Findings revealed that, despite a minimal improvement in speech ability, there was a dramatic increase in family members' satisfaction.