Speak Out December 2018

Commitment to Qld regional, rural and remote members: The Qld Branch and Qld PD have always been prime movers and shakers! In 1982, the Qld Branch gave impetus and direction to the professional needs of its members with the introduction of a PD task group. A successful year later, the task group appointed a part-time paid coordinator (a speech pathologist) to ensure the momentum would continue especially with respect to the provision of services to country members (Lynch 1984). Then this was the first paid coordinator position for the Association at four hours a week. Now, SPA employs five coordinators with a total of approximately 50 hours a week among us. Qld PD has chalked up an impressive score of ‘firsts’. Statistics from the Qld Registration Board revealed 34% of registered speech therapists in Qld worked outside the Brisbane metropolitan area, and that 50% of these were in rural or remote areas. Then our annual PD programme included at least two regionally hosted face to face workshops, alternating between the host sites in North Qld of Cairns and Townsville; and Central Qld of Rockhampton and Mackay. But AASH and other health professional associations surveys of members consistently reported that lack of access to PD was a major factor in the failing retention of health professionals outside metropolitan areas. So in 1992 with a RHSET (Rural Health, Support, Education and Training) grant of $9,000 from the Federal Government we introduced the TCV delivery format. A pre-recorded video of approximately 60 mins was viewed at each site; a group task set by the presenter (and a food break!) occupied the next 60 mins, and the final hour was teleconference linkup between all sites. The presenter/panel reviewed the task and discussions

and questions ensued. Groups of four or more were encouraged at sites facilitated by the PD regional reps or the more rural and remote members could be a ‘sole’ site and attend ‘at home’. From 1992 to 2011, Qld PD ran 68 TCVs; while the shorter time frame imposed restrictions on topic selection, they were very well received – many of you reading this will have attended a number of these. The TCVs were offered to members nationally. A few impressive stats: • Aspergers by Dr Tony Attwood – 160 registrants at 25 sites; • Spoken Language and Reading Difficulties by Dr Gail Gillon – 165 at 34 sites; • Saliva Control by Hilary Johnson – 167 at 32 sites; • Talking Tongues by Cindy Dilworth – 193 at 39 sites. There were some perils not encountered with face to face events: one early TCV saw 20 odd SPs relocate to my lounge room when the site AV wouldn’t work and there was no venue technician to sort us out; failure of the teleconference link up with one or more sites came to be expected; one time the Brisbane teleconference, with the speaker present, had to shut down early as we couldn’t be heard above the din of hailstones on the tin roof. Advances in technology improved the operation amazingly over the years but I always held my breath as the conference facilitator did the roll call! Then, when I came on board as coordinator in November 1988, Qld PD had already commenced the first lending Library for members: text books that were borrowed by Brisbane members coming to the Library cupboard situated in my office. Soon we... Continued on next page

Celebrating AAC Awareness Month

On a sunny morning in October, all was quiet in Rosamond School’s staffroom, the usual buzz of talk conspicuously absent. Any observer would notice however that conversations abounded even in silence. Indeed, staff were participating in the school’s third annual Silent Morning Tea, commemorating October as AAC Awareness Month! For half an hour the staffroom had one rule: no speaking allowed (although laughter was accepted). Our goals were to increase awareness of the experience of communication difficulties and different augmentative and alternative communication options available. Over coffee, baked goods and bingo, and with a backdrop of signed songs, staff put their AAC skills to the test, communicating messages with Key Word Sign, Proloquo2Go, PODD, and anything else they could find! Later staff reflected on this experience: “I found it valuable, as a way of putting myself in the kids’ shoes and seeing it from their perspective. I had to really think of how to get my message across.” - Georgie, primary classroom teacher A big thank you to staff for supporting this awareness event, and speech pathology students Sarah Mitchell, Betty La and Alexandra Bolt for their assistance. We extend thanks also to Scope for supplying resources to support Silent Morning Teas.

Linda Leembruggen Speech Pathologist Jenny Truong Speech Pathologist