Speak Out August 2013

Speech Pathology Week 2013

Start the Conversation 25-31 August

M any of you have asked about this year’s theme – Start the Conversation. This is a deliberate lead in to the International Communication Project 2014 and we want you all to be involved. All we are asking you to do is what you do best… talk. We can all ‘Have a Conversation about Communication’. We can all start to raise awareness about the needs of people with communication or swallowing difficulties in large ways and small. We can talk to our neighbours, our school principals, our employers, our local politicians. We know the facts – we know the needs. We know the consequences of continuing to ignore this problem. We can become the squeaky wheel… and in doing so, we can make a lasting difference to the lives of more than one million Australians. Every day, speech pathologists see the far-reaching, life- changing and life-limiting consequences of communication and swallowing difficulties. We see the significant and preventable disadvantage people confront as a consequence. We know that these Australians are over-represented in the youth justice system and are much more likely to experience an adverse event in hospital. We know that they have poorer health, educational and vocational outcomes and are more prone to mental health problems than other Australians. Simply put, we know these people do not have the same opportunities as other Australians and are much more likely to be marginalised, disadvantaged and dependent on welfare as a result. We also know for many, if not most people, their outcomes can be substantially improved with the right services and the right supports. And we know our current service systems and communities are hopelessly under resourced and under informed to meet these needs. But we are in the minority. Most Australians remain completely unaware of the scale and impact of this silent disability. How else could they tolerate this terrible state of affairs? There are more than one million Australians living with communication and swallowing difficulties. That’s almost 5% of our population. Yet, despite these enormous numbers, services are grossly under resourced or even absent, our society is full of barriers, and our systems and

our communities are largely blind to the needs of these people. Typically most people think of a communication difficulty as a temporary or relatively mild problem. A brief setback easily overcome with a short period of readily available intervention. Too often, it is only those with personal experience who really know how dramatically, and often permanently, lives are changed or even ruined by communication and swallowing problems and how difficult it can be to navigate the everyday world if you experience them. Certainly our politicians, policy makers and funding bodies do not adequately understand the scale of the problem or the urgent need for action and systematic reform to rectify this shameful inequity. It is our collective responsibility to make a difference in the lives of all Australians living with communication and swallowing difficulties and not just those able to access our limited services. Therefore we are calling on all of you to help us shine the spotlight on this dreadful imbalance. I believe, if people genuinely understood the prevalence, the life-changing impact and the entrenched disadvantage so many Australians experience every day, they simply wouldn’t stand for it and would demand action on their behalf. We should live in a world where the right to communication access is a given in the same way the right to physical access is. There is a lot of work to do and a very, very long way to go. But we need to start somewhere. We need coordinated, concerted and sustained action on a large scale if we are to inform and mobilise our communities. We need compelling but simple messages and we need systems change and policy support that explicitly recognises the rights of people with communication and swallowing difficulties to the same opportunities as everyone else. Our global year of awareness and action, The International Communication Project 2014, is a primary platform for raising awareness of the need for this systematic change in Australia and around the world. Throughout the year we will be challenging people everywhere and at all levels of society and government to ‘Have a Conversation about Communication’. More specifically, we will champion the concept of communication as a basic human right. A right which millions of people around the world are unnecessarily and unfairly denied on a daily basis.

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Speak Out August 2013

Speech Pathology Australia