Background 
Aphasia affects one-third of individuals with stroke resulting in their exclusion from everyday communication.  Canadian stroke guidelines recommend clinicians be capable of enabling communicative access.  Training to support sustainable capacity was identified as a gap in Toronto.  The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of a knowledge translation intervention on increasing capacity of stroke teams to use supportive conversation techniques with persons with aphasia (PWA).  
Methodology  
A mixed methods evaluation informed by the Knowledge-to-Action Process was conducted.  Two speech-language pathologists (S-LPs) (1 from acute, 1 from inpatient rehabilitation), received three days of training in Supported Conversation for Adults with Aphasia (SCA™).  Over a 6-month period, S-LPs assessed and addressed barriers to knowledge use, trained and mentored their local team with support from the Aphasia Institute.  Stroke team members completed the Communicative Access Measures for Stroke tool to evaluate capacity to deliver SCA™ pre- and post-intervention.  Each S-LP completed a qualitative report of their experiences.  
Results   
The questionnaire was completed by 42 individuals pre- and 30 post-intervention.  The percentage of participants who agreed/strongly agreed they felt confident in communicating with PWA was 37% pre and 65% post. The percentage of participants who agreed/strongly agreed they felt effective communicating with PWA was 37% pre and 78% post. S-LPs described an increased use of SCA™ strategies and aphasia-friendly toolkits throughout the intervention.    
Conclusion  
The intervention may have contributed to increasing confidence and effectiveness of some stroke team members to provide SCA™ with patients post-stroke.   Findings may be transferrable to other organizations.

EVALUATING THE EFFECT OF A KNOWLEDGE TRANSLATION INTERVENTION ON IMPROVING THE CAPACITY OF STROKE TEAMS TO PROVIDE COMMUNICATIVE ACCESS FOR PERSONS WITH APHASIA