Speak Out April 2017

Branch News

Care compromised by proposal to remove speech pathologists SA Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) SOUTH AUSTRALIA HEALTH recently announced a proposed restructuring of its CAMHS. Speech Pathology Australia was extremely concerned and disappointed to learn that speech pathologists will no longer be part of the multidisciplinary team providing care to the most vulnerable children and young people in the state. Speech pathologists have formed a small, but important part of the CAMHS workforce in South Australia (SA) for over two decades. There is strong evidence of co-occurring mental and communication disorders – particularly in the groups of children and young people which the restructured CAMHS will focus on – Indigenous, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD), those within the juvenile justice system and children under the guardianship of the Minister. Contemporary approaches to mental health care indicate an increased focus on multidisciplinary care – for which speech pathology is increasingly recognised as a specialised component. The removal of speech pathology expertise from CAMHS will compromise the quality of care provided by the service. Speech pathologists within mental health offer specialised skills and expertise that cannot be sourced from other mental health team professionals. We can only presume that the removal of speech pathology expertise from the CAMHS team is driven less by an evaluation of the evidence of need and clinical effectiveness, and more by a need to reduce overall operating costs of the service. Since the announcement we have been busy arguing the case to retain speech pathologists as part of the multidisciplinary mental health team with key stakeholders in the SA government and Parliament. Speech Pathology Australia Director Tim Kittel and CEO Gail Mulcair met with the CAMHS Management Team and we have had a number of discussions with the office of the Minister for Mental Health, Leesa Vlahos. We have also made a formal submission to the consultation process (available on the Speecha Pathology Australia website) and written formally to the Minister of Mental Health and other members of parliament in South Australia to draw attention to this issue.

south Australia

SA 534 Members as at February 2017

38

April 2017 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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