Speak Out June 2020

guides were in place as we were trying to stay on the ‘front foot’. Some families opted to self-isolate from this time so we began Telehealth sessions. Due to our open communication with our clients from an early stage in the pandemic and our preparation of our clinicians to move to Telehealth when needed, we were able to move to 100% Telehealth by the end of March, which we are currently continuing in order to protect both our employees and clients. We have completed assessments and therapy online since. “As a business owner my main concerns were making sure my staff were happy, healthy and felt supported and safe. I wanted to make sure our clients’ needs were being met and that we were able to prioritise high need families and find a suitable alternative to face-to-face therapy to continue their necessary progress. From a financial point, I was worried that if we were to lose too many clients due to COVID and the need to transition to Telehealth we would struggle to survive financially.” For us the main challenge has been the retention of clients due to the needs to transition to Telehealth although, through education of parents and a ‘give it a go’ attitude we have managed to maintain the majority of our clients. For those clients who are unable to continue therapy due to difficulties accessing therapy via Telehealth or financial strains placed on the family, we have implemented home programs and follow up procedures. “Through some word-of-mouth referrals we are now seeing a handful of clients in regional/rural areas (including locations such as Broke, NSW and as far as Karratha, WA). All thanks to our adaption to digital services and using Telehealth. Additionally, we effectively marketed to our loyal customers a financial incentive to continue therapy in term 2. We called this our COVID 19 Loyalty Discount. Going forward we definitely see the value of adapting and providing different approaches to therapy including reaching a broader area of Australia – who knows, international clients? Something to ponder. “We will certainly continue to use many of the new and improved systems that facilitate a better customer experience, like online intake forms, customer feedback forms, streamlining online payment systems and reducing taxing administration tasks. Valerie Gent Let’s Eat Paediatric Speech Pathology, Newcastle “The week the virus was declared a pandemic we immediately put in strict hygiene principles around cleaning. Clients were either spaced out immediately or told to wait in their car until "As a business owner my main concerns were making sure my staff were happy, healthy and felt supported and safe."

received referrals from this ward. “One of the most significant challenges has been managing staff anxiety. Most staff are coping well; however, we have had some staff who were anxious about contracting the disease from patients or the public. It is also difficult to socially distance when working on a busy ward where there are lots of staff and patients” Alissa Gargano Sole clinician Sydney Alissa transitioned as many clients as possible to videoconference. “I already felt competent with video- conference service delivery with this program, so I was ready to hit the ground running with new families in this space. One thing that has been a struggle is for new families to make the switch to video-conference as a viable alternative, but this can be so useful for clients, particularly those who are faced with barriers that prevent ongoing in-person attendance, such as time and geography. As far as these sessions go, I can honestly say that the sessions are exactly the same whether it is in-person or via zoom.” “What has been great is that parents that would otherwise not see the therapy in-person, as is the case with many clients I see in their school, parents have been able to be a part of it. I will be offering this as a service ongoing during the holidays for any parent who wants to attend in-person to do it via Zoom, and to be a part of it.” “I also had a long-standing client prioritise intensive therapy to support literacy acquisition. I have significantly reduced my fees to meet with the family’s capacity (as I have done with all clients right now). This intensive instruction is sustainable for the client in the short term while they are at home, and has meant that the client has now gone from reading single letters and single sounds, to reading chapter books and writing self-constructed full sentences, in the space of one month “I have been able to branch out with support of a colleague who runs a centre overseas. They were required to transition over to video sessions only with only a few days warning. Since I had been working with video sessions for my parent coaching for a few years now, and then had a few more weeks experience with direct therapy via video, I was engaged to conduct some training for the therapy team in that centre. This has now been expanded in to a long standing engagement, including writing a parent training program that we will roll out within that team. Further to this, there is interest from other centres in the region who will also be signing up for training in the program to be delivered via Zoom. So at the moment, with things being very different, and with direct client work having certain limitations at the moment, this training program has turned in to my bread and butter, and I’m hoping, something that will see me through for the next six months and allow me to keep my business running till the landscape stabilises and things go back to normal.” Samantha Carr Director Speak and Write, Sydney For Samantha Carr, owner of Speak and Write Speech Pathology operating two clinics in Sydney, in the early days of the pandemic communication was key. “Prior to COVID-19 we mainly saw clients at our clinics or at schools in our local area. However, we also offered a few Telehealth appointments for clients out of area (but only a few!) “Initially we communicated with parents to remind them of our Infection Control Policy and our plan to move to Telehealth as a way to continue therapy if that became necessary. This was sent at the beginning of March before any social distancing

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June 2020 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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