Speak Out October 2016

Ethics news

SPA Ethics Board training weekend

The 10 members of the SPA Ethics Board, Vice President Communications and Senior Advisor Ethics and Professional Issues met at National Office over the weekend 12–14 August, for the annual training weekend. The Ethics Board membership includes seven speech pathologists: the chair, three senior members (appointed by the Board of Directors) plus three elected members; and three community representatives who are not speech pathologists. The Ethics Board is responsible for managing ethical complaints related to members’ speech pathology practice as well as promoting ethical practice in speech pathology, including provision of education to encourage and support proactive application of our professional ethics in our practice. The Board achieves this objective by publishing articles, running conference workshops and ongoing development of the SPA Ethics Education Package. The training weekend started on Friday evening with a presentation from Dr Arthur Rallis, lawyer, on ethical breaches and determination of appropriate penalties. The Board spent the following day completing training activities, including examination of ethical issues that may arise when speech pathologists work with people living with dysphagia as they transition to the NDIS. The weekend concluded at midday on Sunday after a full meeting of the Ethics Board. It was a full program that inspired robust discussion and exploration of current trends in professional speech pathology ethics.

From Left Trish Johnson (SAEPI) and Ethics Board members include Trish Bradd, Donna Dancer, Belinda Kenny, Suze Leitao, Richard Saker, Sue Block, Tristan Nickless, Felicity Burke, Helen Smith and Grant Meredith. `

Ethics Board Community Representative Grant Meredith

Grant has been a SPA Ethics Board Community Representative since 2010. This role entails participation in investigation panels when a formal ethics complaint is received against a member, as well as contributing to the quarterly meetings and educational activities of the Board. Grant lectures in the Faculty of Science and Technology, School of Engineering and Information Technology at Federation University Australia in multimedia and games. He was awarded Alumnus of the Year from the university in 2015, in the Outstanding Service to the Community nomination category. www.federation.edu.au/industry-and- community/alumni/about- alumni/alumni-awards/2015- alumni-award-recipients The award was given to Grant

Ethics Board members regularly contribute articles published in the J ournal of Clinical Practice in Speech- Language Pathology (JCPSLP ). Are you aware that the Ethics Board published an ethics supplement of the JCPSLP in 2015? The supplement contains articles from 2005–2015 written by members of the Ethics Board and colleagues. The supplement is available through open access, and the articles are organised thematically to cover emerging trends in ethical issues, ethics in the workplace, ethics and technology, ethics and dysphagia management, and ethics and clinical education. This issue of JCPSLP can be viewed here: www.speechpathologyaustralia.cld.bz/ JCPSLP-Vol-17-Supplement-1-2015-lores The Ethics Education Package is currently a hard-copy document that members can download at no charge from the SPA website. Dr Suze Leitao, Chair of the Ethics Board, and Dr Belinda Kenney, an elected member, are currently working on the development of the package into an online learning format, which will be piloted between now and the end of 2016. Keep your eyes open for the new online modules in 2017. Ethics education `

in recognition of his role in establishing and leading the Technologies for Empowering People for Participation in Society (TEPPS) program. This program has produced a number of software programs that are designed to assist people with special needs, including Scenari-Aid which is an online “social simulator”, providing opportunities to practise communication in a variety of simulated social environments.

Trish Johnson Senior Advisor Ethical and Professional Issues

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October 2016 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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