Speak Out June 2020

amazing for incidental back and forth conversations. We were able to share the huge amount of free resources that were coming our way from everywhere, and to provide reviews/ commentary on different websites/activities we had tried. “We also recognised that we had to look/change to a new way of working, away from the traditional 8hr day with a lunch break. We gave staff flexibility in the way they managed their day to ensure that they were incorporating enough breaks, getting outside and time away from screens.”

children with ASD) have had a more negative experience, as adapting to online learning is an entire devastating lifestyle change for them. I have found myself being more of a support to those children and their parents (rather than a speech pathologist) by giving strategies on how best to cope with the online learning experience. I think we are all trying to ‘survive’ the best we can in these times, so I’ve been trying to support each child individually according to their immediate needs. I’m actually really thankful that I had this experience as it made me think outside the box. I have been operating as a speech pathologist for nine years now, so it was a fantastic opportunity for me to extend my skills and prove to myself that I can operate as a Teletherapist if I need to! Jonathon Rafols Manager Speech Pathology Bentley Hospital Perth For Jonathon and his team at Bentley Hospital in Perth the pandemic meant significant changes to services and to staff. The team sees inpatients and outpatients with swallowing and communication disorders. Pre-COVID they mostly worked with clients face-to-face. We see adults over the age of 16. Areas of specialty include stroke and geriatric rehabilitation, Parkinson’s, voice and videofluoroscopy. “We have a business continuity plan but it did not include a pandemic. Despite it being talked about by the likes of Bill Gates and others our focus had been on fire prevention and other emergencies. The risk of viral infection (not just corona) is significantly greater and yet we were all very under prepared. “In the first phase of the pandemic pregnant hospital staff took unplanned leave due to fear of infection and replacement staff were required and telehealth for outpatient visits was adopted. “Our group therapy ceased, videofluoroscopy ceased for outpatients. There was increased use of PPE. Dysphagia assessments were considered high risk for aerosolisation so new PPE guidelines for SPs had to be developed. We had lots of training on the correct technique for donning and doffing of PPE. “We had to cease a research study due to some of the procedures being considered aerosol generating procedures (e.g., EMST) and cease commencing another project. “One of the main concerns was staff becoming infected and not having sufficient human resources to provide a SP service. “We feared the hospitals would be inundated with COVID patients and that we would not be able to provide rehabilitation to our regular patients such as those with stroke and other neurological conditions. “We had to adopt our outpatient service for use with telehealth. We had some webcams but not enough and the shops had sold out so it meant a lot of swapping computers with cameras. We also did not have enough PPE in the hospitals. There was not enough PPE for training purposes, and we had to improvise by using cloths with elastic bands as masks. “We have discovered the benefits of using telehealth with outpatients. Aphasia therapy works well when delivered via telehealth. We have recently started running an aphasia group via telehealth. Therapies for other disorders such as dysarthria and dysphonia are more difficult. “Inpatient numbers have increased by 20% as we are taking more subacute patients from the tertiary hospitals. We also have active (as at 15 May 2020) COVID-19 patients in a dedicated COVID-19 ward for mental health patients. We have so far not

Felicity Conlan Speech Pathologist, Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School, Melbourne. Felicity works at a primary school

and her main concerns centred on keeping students engaged in an online environment. “The idea of keeping my students engaged online for an entire term, running out of online resources to use, and my limited IT knowledge and experience in regard to Teletherapy.” There are a couple of children who weren’t able to continue speech therapy online. We discovered that they were feeling overwhelmed and weren’t keeping up with the academic side of online learning. So instead of conducting another online session, I found it more useful to provide their parents with strategies to help support their child in their online learning environment at home. As my screening process has now ended for the kinder children, I had to think of a way I could connect with them online to stay present in their learning. I’ve had great success with posting daily speech and language activities on my Instagram page for their parents to try at home with their children. The timing of my sessions has also been important for student engagement. All of my online sessions with students are scheduled in the mornings as I found that I lost most of the children by the time the afternoon comes around. My speech sessions are also much shorter, as learning from a screen is incredibly draining. “I discovered that I am able to operate Teletherapy successfully. I can now turn any face to face lesson into an online one. It took a lot of trial and error, speaking to other speech pathologists, and watching lots of online tutorials, but I got there! “Most of my students have been able to adapt tremendously well to online learning. However, some of them (in particular

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June 2020 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

Speak Out