Background: Mental capacity legislation in the UK is designed to safeguard the rights of people who may need support, or may be unable, to make autonomous decisions. Very limited evidence has been published about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the application of mental capacity legislation and, to our knowledge, none on the ability of…

Background: Surgical and respirator masks are worn to reduce the risk of droplet and airborne transmission of viral respiratory disease. As a result of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, mask wearing has been designated mandatory for healthcare professionals working in UK hospitals for the foreseeable future. It is thus timely to consider…

Background: Treatment trials that enquire into parents' and teachers' views on speech-language interventions and outcomes for primary school-age children are relatively rare. The current study sought perceptions of the process of intervention and value placed on outcomes resulting from a trial of intervention, the Social Communication Intervention…

Background: The psychosocial impact of acquired dysarthria on the speaker is well recognized. To date, speech-and-language therapists have no instrument available to measure this construct. This has implications for outcome measurement and for planning intervention. This paper describes the Dysarthria Impact Profile (DIP), an instrument that has…

Background: The UK is a multicultural, multilingual society and the majority of paediatric speech and language therapists in England have at least one bilingual child on their caseload. There are many imperatives driving the profession to provide an equitable service for bilingual children. Evidence is beginning to emerge, however, that bilingual…