Building community through engagement in a Hub-and-Spoke, Peer-led Community Aphasia Group program: the perspectives of participants with aphasia and their close others.

Abstract

Long-term social support is a key protective factor for living well with chronic disabilities. Community Aphasia Groups (CAGs) provide opportunities for connection and recovery. To address service availability challenges, we developed the Hub-and-Spoke, Peer-led CAG program in which a "Hub" of clinical staff supports "Spokes"-community members with and without aphasia-to facilitate high-quality CAGs. A pilot, mixed-methods study confirmed the feasibility and acceptability of this model. This nested qualitative study explored program acceptability from the perspective of group members and their close others. Semi-structured interviews were conducted immediately following the 12-session program and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. All 13 participants in the pilot consented to interviews. Analysis generated five themes across the two participatory groups and six recommendations for future iterations. Findings support the acceptability of this novel CAG model, showing benefits in purpose, confidence, support and expanded roles. Greater attention to activity programming, close other needs, and group roles is essential. Conducted within a research centre, the model's generalisability to standard healthcare settings may be limited. Further research is needed to examine scalability and wider applicability to understand the implementation potential of a Hub-and-Spoke, Peer-led CAG model.