Speak Out December 2018

60 years in the profession Recognition and celebration of Mary Buttifant MSPA (Life) AT THE RECENT VICTORIAN BRANCH AGM, SPEECH PATHOLOGY AUSTRALIA LIFE MEMBER MARY BUTTIFANT WAS WELCOMED AND INTRODUCED AS THE MEETING’S SPECIAL GUEST IN CELEBRATION OF HER 60+ YEARS IN THE PROFESSION. BELOW IS A LITTLE OF MARY’S WONDERFUL CAREER HIGHLIGHTS.

Mary Buttifant received her Licentiate of the Australian College of Speech Therapists in 1957 at the Victorian School of Speech Therapy, and commenced work in 1958. Initially Mary worked as the sole speech therapist across a wide variety of contexts including Janefield Training Centre, Ivanhoe Grammar, Greenvale Hospital, the Repatriation General Hospital Heidelberg and in private practice. In the first six years of her career, Mary also managed to fit in the birth of her four children whilst continuing to work – a combination largely unheard of in that era. In 1971, Mary was appointed Senior Speech Therapist at the Austin Hospital, leaving two years later to join Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences as Senior Clinical Supervisor, the first person to hold this role. She was responsible for developing and implementing a new curriculum in clinical education, which was ground-breaking, since the concept that clinical training had its own theoretical knowledge was only beginning to be accepted within Australian training institutions at the time. Along with this role, Mary also completed her BAppSc in Speech Pathology at Lincoln Institute in 1975, as a qualification upgrade. In 1978 Mary became the Chief Speech Pathologist of the Alfred Hospital where she stayed for 20 years. During this time, she was the Chairperson for the Division of Allied Health for five years providing excellent stewardship through some significant healthcare changes. Indeed, her exceptional leadership and clinical skills were pioneering, placing speech pathology and allied health as key contributors to acute health care and improved quality of life advocacy. Her leadership style was strong, considered and compassionate, if not somewhat formidable for those who did not realise the ‘no trousers allowed’ dress policy. She always maintained a high clinical load along with her administrative duties and her clinical skills in all areas, especially within the head and neck cancer and voice caseloads, were unrivalled. In 1999, Mary returned to the Repatriation and Austin to head up the Voice Clinic. In the next year, Mary commenced providing sessional lectures at Latrobe University and then became a Problem Based Learning (PBL) Facilitator and tutor in 2002, and achieved permanent Academic tenure in 2006. Mary has been continuing with these roles at both the Austin and Latrobe ever since. In both contexts, her mentoring and teaching are valued beyond measure. Each week she supervises two students in the Austin voice clinic, and facilitates Monday and Friday morning PBL at Bundoora. Each semester, Mary teaches voice treatment and marks exam papers and assignments. Just this year she had the remarkable experience of supervising the grand-daughter of one of her former students – meaning a grandfather-granddaughter duo has had the same clinical educator on placement, some 50 years apart! Over the last 20 years, Mary has had a thriving private practice As teacher, mentor and role model, Mary has inspired countless speech pathologists across her extraordinary career and her impact on our profession is immeasurable.

working in many sectors of speech pathology particularly voice, head and neck, laryngology and fluency. Mary has held many positions of responsibilities over her illustrious career, including Victorian President 1975-1976 and then National President of our association, then known as AASH, during the period from 1979-1983. In 1994 Mary was awarded Life membership with Speech Pathology Australia. Mary was also the National Advisor on the Allied Health Professional Advisory Committee to the federal government for some years and also committed to pursuing registration for Victorian speech pathologists. Mary has sat on numerous committees, convened several conferences and been a strong advocate and exemplar for the role of the speech pathologist across many sectors. She has also never lost sight of the people she has pledged to serve – people with communication disorders – and has been heavily involved in community self-help groups such as the New Voice Association. As teacher, mentor and role model, Mary has inspired countless speech pathologists across her extraordinary career and her impact on our profession is immeasurable. Her professionalism, vision, wisdom, humility and extensive experience, coupled with her continued curiosity, zeal for new learning, and a passion for making a difference, make Mary a national treasure for the speech pathology profession.

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December 2018 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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