Perceptions of communication between people with communication disability and general practice staff
Open accessAbstract
Objective To explore consultation between people with communication disability and General Practice (GP) staff from the perspectives of both patients and staff. Background Communication disability causes a particular problem in primary care. This issue has not yet been investigated from the perspective of both patients and GP staff. Design Eight focus groups were held – four with GP practices, two with people with intellectual disability and two with people who had had a stroke. Picture symbols and Talking Mats®, a visual communication framework, were used to assist the participants with communication disability. Discussions were audio recorded and analysed thematically. Participants Twenty GP staff, 12 people with aphasia and six people with learning disability were interviewed. Results GP staff expressed frustration with not being understood and not understanding but there was a lack of awareness of the reasons behind these difficulties. They all said they mainly relied on carers. They recognized the significance of poor communication in terms of access to health services and agreed that the extent of the problem was greater than they had previously believed. People with communication disability described significant problems before, during and after the consultation. Although some acknowledged that they needed help from their carer, most objected to staff speaking to the carer and not to them. Conclusions The main priorities for GP staff were the need for relevant training and simple resources. The main priorities for people with communication difficulty were continuity of staff, trust, better GP staff communication skills, and less reliance on carers.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Healthcare providers recognise the importance of specialist training for people with intellectual disabilities and for others with communication challenges.
“Despite this, healthcare providers recognise the importance of such specialist training for people with intellectual disabilities and for others with communication challenges.23”
From Barriers and facilitators to primary health care for people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism: an integrative review (2020) · cites this paper as [23]
Inadequate communication can result in the wrong diagnosis and inappropriate medication, and it can prevent a person's access to receiving adequate health care.
“It causes problems in primary care as inadequate communication can result in the wrong diagnosis and inappropriate medication, and it can prevent a person’s access to receiving adequate health care.23,43,44”
From Barriers and facilitators to primary health care for people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism: an integrative review (2020) · cites this paper as [23]
Studies found a lack of awareness by healthcare providers about the range of communication issues faced by people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism when accessing and attending primary and acute healthcare settings.
“Studies found a lack of awareness by healthcare providers about the range of communication issues faced by people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism when accessing and attending primary and acute healthcare settings.23,45–47”
From Barriers and facilitators to primary health care for people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism: an integrative review (2020) · cites this paper as [23]
If these patients find health care stressful because of poor communication then they may lower their expectations, lower their attendance, and feel disaffected, and this may lead to ineffective health care.
“If these patients find health care stressful because of poor communication then they may lower their expectations, lower their attendance, and feel disaffected, and this may lead to ineffective health care.23”
From Barriers and facilitators to primary health care for people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism: an integrative review (2020) · cites this paper as [23]
Healthcare practitioners may rely on communicating with a carer, family member, or support worker rather than with the service user directly.
“Healthcare practitioners may rely on communicating with a carer, family member, or support worker rather than with the service user directly.23,25,36,45,47”
From Barriers and facilitators to primary health care for people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism: an integrative review (2020) · cites this paper as [23]
Barriers to training include time constraints, knowledge gaps, and uncertainties over specialist help.
“Barriers to their training include time constraints, knowledge gaps, and uncertainties over specialist help.23”
From Barriers and facilitators to primary health care for people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism: an integrative review (2020) · cites this paper as [23]
The use of convenience samples and self-selection may also bias the results.
“The use of convenience samples23,56 and self-selection20 may also bias the results.”
From Barriers and facilitators to primary health care for people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism: an integrative review (2020) · cites this paper as [23]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Qualitative Research Methods: A Health Focus
Rice, P. L., & Ezzy, D. (1999) · Cited by 1,133 · see citing works
Qualitative Research Methods: A Health Focus
Newell, C. (2000) · eCite Digital Repository (University of Tasmania) · Cited by 948 · see citing works
Powell, R. A., & Single, H. M. (1996) · International Journal for Quality in Health Care · doi:10.1093/intqhc/8.5.499 · Cited by 707 · see citing works
Enabling young people with a learning disability to make choices at a time of transition
Cameron, L., & Murphy, J. (2002) · British Journal of Learning Disabilities · doi:10.1046/j.1468-3156.2002.00165.x · Cited by 119 · see citing works
Self-citationAdults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000
Steven, A. (2003) · Cited by 92 · see citing works
Murphy, J., Tester, S., Hubbard, G., et al. (2005) · Health & Social Care in the Community · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2524.2005.00528.x · Cited by 88 · see citing works
Self-citationMaking sense in primary care: levelling the playing field for people with communication difficulties
Law, J., Bunning, K., Byng, S., et al. (2005) · Disability & Society · doi:10.1080/09687590500059267 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Hemsley, B., & Balandin, S. (2004) · Augmentative and Alternative Communication · doi:10.1080/07434610400011646 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Yeates, S. R. (1995) · British Journal of Learning Disabilities · doi:10.1111/j.1468-3156.1995.tb00169.x · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Caring for the developmentally disabled in the community.
Beange, H. P., & Bauman, A. E. (1990) · PubMed · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Adults With Learning Difficulties
Farrell, I. C., & Mann, K. (2020) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781003077305-3 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Doherty, A. J., Atherton, H., Boland, P., Hastings, R., Hives, L., Hood, K., James-Jenkinson, L., Leavey, R., Randell, E., Reed, J., et al. (2020) · BJGP Open · doi:10.3399/bjgpopen20x101030 · Cited by 244 · see citing works
- Authors
- Murphy, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Stirling (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Murphy, Joan
- Venue
- Health Expectations
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2006-01-24
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 49-59
- ISSN
- 1369-6513 (ISSN-L)
- 1369-7625
- PMC
- PMC5060330
- OpenAlex
- W1963657986
- Cited by
- 125
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 6.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Health Expectations (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Down syndrome and intellectual disability research
- Keywords
- communication disorders, primary care, general practice, aphasia, stroke, intellectual disability, visual communication, picture symbols, Talking Mats, employee training, continuity of care, trust, health care access
- MeSH terms
- Communication, Family Practice, United Kingdom, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Medical Staff, Professional-Patient Relations, Referral and Consultation, Mental Competency, Focus Groups
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
