The measurement of psychological well-being in the person with aphasia.

This paper will introduce the construct of psychological well-being and discuss its relevance to speech and language therapy. Measures of psychological well-being are used routinely in psychological contexts, both as diagnostic and research indicators, and also as outcome measures. There is not a tradition of measuring psychological well-being in the speech and language therapy context, yet the clinical significance of well-being to therapeutic outcome is recognised. This paper will evaluate the existing measures available and discuss the development and validation of the Visual Analogue Self Esteem Scale for use with aphasic speakers (Brumfitt and Sheeran, 1998). Problems inherent in evaluating self-knowledge in communicatively disordered speakers will be discussed.