Commentary on 'Evaluation of the impact of supervisory support on staff experiences of training'

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the findings from Koski et al.'s (2014) research around training staff to communicate effectively.

Design/methodology/approach

– This commentary reflects on the needs of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD). It uses the Five Good Communication Standards (Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, 2013) as a framework for thinking about good communication.

Findings

– Ongoing support is certainly important in enabling staff to develop and maintain good communication partnerships with the people they are working with. This first requires agreement from all involved regarding what good communication partnerships look like and how they can be measured.

Originality/value

– This paper focuses on the Five Good Communication Standards and how these might be interpreted with people with PIMD. It uses information from Goldbart and Caton's (2010) review of communication and people with the most complex needs to reflect on what is known from research and practice about each of these five standards. It concludes that more research is needed and greater implementation is needed where evidence is strong. We need to know what “good” could look like with people with PIMD so services support staff can then be facilitated to build successful communication partnerships and maintain these over time.