The ability to express yourself through talk and to understand what is said is fundamental to every person's identity, social interactions, relationships and everyday activities - any for many people with dementia, is an ability that is progressively lost. Speech pathologists are uniquely qualified to treat communication function impacted by dementia. However, only a small proportion of people wit
h dementia currently receive speech pathology input for communication function. In order to improve access to appropriate services, speech pathologists need "more services, more awareness and more information". Therefore, the proposed project will work with people with dementia, their care partners, speech pathologists and the wider dementia care team to gather more information about the importance and meaning they attribute to communication function, their priorities for treatment, and perceived barrier to service access.