Better Conversations with Primary Progressive Aphasia and other rare dementias (BCPPA): Speech and Language Therapy to keep families together.

A diagnosis of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) or another rare dementia slowly strips away a person’s ability to speak and understand language, leaving families struggling to communicate. This matters because current speech and language therapy for these conditions is scarce and poorly tested. Most services focus on early-stage Alzheimer’s, leaving people with rare dementias and their families without evidence-based support. The researchers are running a randomised waitlist-controlled feasibility study within the NHS, comparing a new therapy programme—called BCPPA—against a waiting list for people with PPA and their communication partners. The study uses mixed methods to evaluate whether the therapy is practical, acceptable, and worth testing in a larger trial. If this research succeeds, it could provide the first robust evidence for a speech and language therapy package designed specifically for rare dementias. That would give clinicians a proven tool to help families maintain meaningful conversation for longer, delaying the social isolation that often forces people into residential care. The impact is direct and personal: keeping families together at home, where they want to be.