Good assessment tools are needed to properly understand the wellbeing of young people with complex communication needs. Driven by a desire to promote equitable access to mental health support for young people with disability, the aim of this PhD was to develop an approach for assessing mental health in people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).

This PhD project included: 

• A systematic review of the tools that already exist to assess wellbeing in people with complex communication needs. 
• A mixed methods study to understand the current practice and future needs of professionals involved in assessing mental health concerns in young AAC-users. 
• A qualitative study to explore the mental health experiences of young AAC-users. 

Three papers have been published as a result of this work:

• Assessing mental health of people with complex communication needs (Pennacchia et al 2025)* 
• Making qualitative research accessible to people who have communication disability (Pennacchia et al 2025)* 
• Teams, tools, and time: a mixed methods study of workforce practices to identify mental health concerns in young people with complex communication needs (Pennacchia et al 2025) 

Two videos were also produced which describes the clinical implications of this work.

• Watch Mental Health in AAC Users – Video 1 – Greg on YouTube 
• Watch Mental Health in AAC Users – Video 2 – Shirls on YouTube

This doctoral research was funded through the Swedish Research Foundation, a Speech Pathology Australia research grant, and the NHMRC Funded Centre of Research Excellence CP-Achieve. 

*Plain language resource for these journal articles are linked below in ‘Associated Resources’.